Webinar on farm debt and vulture funds to be held next week
Farmers struggling with farm debt or mortgage arrears have been told that there is a “possible solution” and are invited to take part in a private webinar on the matter.
The webinar, which will take place on Thursday, January 14, will feature Gary Digney, of PKF-FPM Accountants Ltd, and barrister Keith Farry.
They will be explaining their approach to tackling so-called ‘vulture funds’, along with outlining the fundamentals of a recourse that is being seen as “giving much more positive options to farmers in these invidious positions”.
The event is being administered by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) and will be chaired by the association’s president, Pat McCormack.
ICMSA welcomes new bovine TB eradication strategy
The deputy president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) Lorcan McCabe has welcomed the newly-published bovine tuberculosis (bTB) eradication strategy.
He confirmed that his organisation had worked collaboratively with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) officials and other stakeholders to get to this point.
However, McCabe also noted that the real work starts from here and is going to involve hard decisions in the next number of years to deal decisively with the disease and alleviate the real hardship inflicted on farm families unfortunate enough to experience an outbreak of bovine TB.
Serious concern has been raised by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) about the delays and uncertainty applying to Irish food being transported using the British land-bridge to continental markets and destinations as a result of Covid-19 related travel bans.
Commenting on the matter, ICMSA president Pat McCormack said that the nature of these products must differentiate them from other cargos trapped in the current standstill.
Continuing, McCormack said that some definite conditions need to be applied to the present situation to allow food products to get to their destination quickly, adding:
Obviously we’re cognisant of the over-riding health issues, but we do think that arrangements could – and should – be made that recognise the priority of food over other less important commodities.
Is slurry the missing link in the TB eradication chain?
I commend the latest attempts by agriculture minister Charlie McConalogue to get agreement on a comprehensive Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) eradication campaign. I also welcome the public support for this initiative from a number of farm bodies, including the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (IICSA) and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).
Let’s hope they don’t forget the very salient fact that we live on an island and, at the end of the day, we need an All-Ireland approach to the problem, if we are to eradicate the scourge of bovine TB once and for all.