The Irish Farmers' Association - IFA

Lobbying Organisation The Irish Farmers' Association - IFA

Date published 19 May, 2024

Relevant Matter Public policy or programme

Public Policy Area Agriculture

Period 1 Jan, 2024 to 30 Apr, 2024

Specific Details Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) Indices

Intended results To address the genuine concerns that suckler farmers and pedigree breeders have with the recently-published indices by the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF). To query how the weightings and calculations are applied and their impact on suckler breeding policy and the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) to ensure farmers have confidence in the indices. To stress that it is important farmers participating in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) do not experience any negative impact from the changes. To highlight that the Minister for Agriculture has said that there will be flexibilities which are important to allow for a thorough examination of the indices in the stakeholder forum. He must keep all issues that arise for the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP) participants under review. To highlight that the star rating system is not working for suckler farmers on the ground and must be discontinued, with the emphasis being put on the ‘Euro Value‘ for the animals in the index. This would remove the cliff edge of dropping between star categories without, in some cases, any change to the animal's euro value. To point out that the current system is failing to reflect the production system for suckler farmers who sell their weanlings. The indices must be developed to reflect the full value of the output from these farms. Weanling production is a different production system than integrated beef finishing systems and there should be an index to reflect this. To emphasise that the new indices must be scrutinised for the purpose of the inclusion of all of the current measures, their weighting within the index and the data source used for the economic modelling. To highlight the concerns around areas such as cow live weight, maintenance cost of suckler cows, failure to include actual weanling prices, carbon, TB resistance, calving data, milk, days to slaughter, and age at finish. To insist that all of these concerns will have to be assessed for their relevance and purpose for inclusion in an economic index for suckler cows and accuracy of data available. It is also important that Teagasc are fully engaged in this process given much of the changes in the indices are based on changes to economic values arising from Teagasc modelling.

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Francie Gorman IFA President, Damian McDonald IFA Director General, Declan Hanrahan IFA Livestock Chair, Tomás Bourke IFA Senior Livestock Policy Executive

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Email (1)

Informal communication (2-5)

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Jackie Cahill TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Michael Collins TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Michael Fitzmaurice TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Michael Ring TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Joe Flaherty TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Paul Kehoe TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Claire Kerrane TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Brian Leddin TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Johnny Mythen TD (Dáil Éireann, the Oireachtas)

Tim Lombard Senator (Seanad)

Victor Boyhan Senator (Seanad)

Lynn Boylan Senator (Seanad)

Paul Daly Senator (Seanad)

Denis O'Donovan Senator (Seanad)

Barry Andrews MEP (European Parliament)

Billy Kelleher MEP (European Parliament)

Chris MacManus MEP (European Parliament)

Ciarán Cuffe MEP (European Parliament)

Clare Daly MEP (European Parliament)

Colm Markey MEP (European Parliament)

Deirdre Clune MEP (European Parliament)

Frances Fitzgerald MEP (European Parliament)

Grace O'Sullivan MEP (European Parliament)

Luke Ming Flanagan MEP (European Parliament)

Maria Walsh MEP (European Parliament)

Mick Wallace MEP (European Parliament)

Sean Kelly MEP (European Parliament)

Brendan Gleeson Secretary General (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)

Paul Savage Assistant Secretary (Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine)