Sir, – Your story (Alison Healy, Home News, December 9th) on the threat to the future of Irish Seed Savers Association (ISSA) is frightening in its implications. Since its inception, ISSA provides a valuable service, at a miniscule cost, to the future sustainability of Irish agriculture and horticulture.
The funding cuts from the Department of Agriculture that now threaten its very existence are short-sighted in the extreme. We hear endless exhortations from Government that the future of Irish food production is in quality, environmental sustainability, etc. The work that this modest organisation is doing in those fields surely means its funding should be enhanced rather than cut. One day last year, when I visited ISSA in Scarriff, a farmer from the Midlands was collecting 250 native Irish apple trees for commercial apple production. These had been propagated and nurtured by ISSA.
If the Government cannot see the wisdom of maintaining funding to ISSA then the big commercial growers and importers such as Keelings, Fyffes, Donnellys, etc should jump at the opportunity to support an operation that can contribute so much to their business in the long term. And think of the PR value they could gain from associating with such a noble project. – Yours, etc,
TOM CLEARY,
Castle Street,
Birr, Co Offaly.