Would you support a new Rural Political Party

How much of Ireland’s milk is ending up in baby formula?

Nobody is expecting most journey's to not still be by car.

If a new party is based on current independants then I wouldn't be a supporter. Most of them don't seem to work well in a party structure and want to be free to do and say their own thing. Most of them ( and people who vote for them ) are hoping for a hung dail so they can get a special deal while remaining outside of criticism of being in Gov ( running with fox and hunting with hounds )

Also for a party to last long term it should be built from ground up rather than running candidates in a general election as its first step ( top down )

This is why IMO a full-fledged political party won't emerge from the current conversations. But I still think there may be a looser alliance of independents competing in the next election. Fitzmaurice is probably looking at the formation of the current government and thinking "If some 10-12 of us independents had our act together and had been ready to negotiate as a group with FF and FG we might have been able to seal a deal and keep the Greens out." And there's a fair chance a similar scenario will arise after the next election. But there isn't really time for a group of indies to hash out a common front among themselves from scratch before sitting down as a group to negotiate government formation with FF/FG/whoever. So that's what I think is the real purpose of the current proposals, to have some coordination among independents ready to go among independents so they'll be ready to talk about doing a deal as a group after the next election.

We produce quality, that's why our product sells so well abroad.

The most difficult market to sell our product in is at home.

Any of our farmers producing product for the home market have either gone broke, are goi g broke or have changed enterprises.

No but if Europe don't produce enough of its own. Then it will be taking it out of the mouths of the hungry people. Go away and grow your window boxes. The price war on dairy products is what is worrying most on here this morning. Rather than trying to teach your type

Areas with a lot of dairy production would just see big dairy farms Hoover up all the land currently in beef, sheep and tillage production in turn leading to industrial scale dairy farming. This would in turn lead to greater pollution as land that wasn’t being farmed intensively before would now be. Without subsidies you could basically draw an X through a good percentage of west of Ireland farms due to them being unviable. This would lead to desertification of poorer land and an even further brain drain on rural areas. But of course this is what the greens and co would have a wet dream over deserted land and push everyone towards urban areas. I’m sure you’d have no issue with this also as you clearly are so far removed from the reality of rural life and also maintain people should be shoved towards urban areas.

Organic food production is largely a dead end. The market isn't there and I wouldn't be surprised if it is a market going backwards.

High margin it definitely is not.

They are EU subsidies to pay to maintain food security in EUROPE where guess what we ship a lot of produce to.

Either that or a paid shill. Propaganda is in vogue with these bad actors.

You keep droning on with the same mantra, but listen to nothing.

If there is a new party to be founded to represent rural Ireland it will require some intellectual and powerful speakers who can get their points across in an articulate and respectful way.

While I’m sure most rural residents may agree with the rhetoric of a lot of what the likes of fitzMaurice says at times he has a tendency to fly off the handle and come out with some very anti environmental statements.

In order for a new party to succeed you would need play away with environmentalists in order to secure a transition in farming for example that would be gradual and agreeable with farmers (no one is saying farmers want to do nothing).

A huge proportion of rural dwellers are far more educated than most urban dwellers so it is time to tap into this cohort who have experience of rural living and challenges to form something to represent rural Ireland and ensure it prospers instead of the current downward trajectory it finds itself on.

1.Zero as its a waste of time and effort which could cripple one of our few indigenous industries for a generation or more.

2.I would imagine the government of the day would realise its an idea best served by giving it lip service and a public position of mea cupla and give us more time and money and we go again.

That's this farmers opinion anyways.