Laois leader of IFA upset by south Dublin dinner party chat after Varadkar's rural jibe

The Laois man who leads Ireland's biggest farming organisation is dismayed by remarks made by the former Taoiseach and leader of Fine Gael, Leo Varadkar.

The views expressed by Mr Varadkar also caused Francie Gorman to be concerned about "narrative" among people at "dinner parties in South Dublin".

Speaking with Matt Cooper on the Path to Power podcast, Mr Varadkar claimed that what is in the interests of farmers is by and large not in the interests of Ireland as a nation.

He said farmers still see themselves as the people who bring money and jobs into Ireland, where a lot of the time they bring costs on Ireland. He extended his remarks to people living in rural areas.

"People in rural Ireland are very quick to tell people in urban Ireland that ‘we're the real workers, we’re the ones paying all the bills, we’re the ones feeding the country.

"I think maybe we need to be a little bit more blunt in urban Ireland and say, actually, that's not the case, we’re the ones paying all the bills and you’re the ones in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits that other people don’t get," he said.

Responding on The Claire Byrne Show on NewsTalk radio, Mr Gorman said the remarks had dismayed him.

“He was Taoiseach of our country and I would have worked with him for four or five months when I became president of IFA and always felt that he was collegiate in how he went about doing his business and that he had a real regard for people in rural Ireland. But obviously, his comments yesterday, April 20, showed that maybe that wasn't the case.”

Mr Gorman said he fears society is increasingly divided and that urban people understand little about their rural neighbours.

“I think the concern is that there is a narrative that when people are at their dinner parties in South Dublin and they're talking around the table, that it's a feeling that rural Ireland doesn't contribute.

“And I mean, if you go back to when we had the financial crash in 2008, the two industries that kept the country on its knees or on its feet were agriculture and tourism,” he said.

Mr Gorman claimed this “disconnect” is evident in the relationship between farmers and the Government. He noted the agricultural sector had to lobby hard to get the Taoiseach to oppose the EU’s trade deal with the Mercosur bloc, while arguing that their concerns over the price of fuel were initially ignored.

“We warned the Government in talks on the 1st of April before the protest started, that if they didn't do something significant on it, that this would happen,” he said.

READ NEXT: Farmers driven to fuel protests after being "hammered" by high costs and regulations

“And to be clear, the interventions that they made at the cabinet meeting earlier on were completely insufficient to solve the problem,” he told the Mountrath woman on radio.

The ICSA Rural Development chair Edmond Phelan said Mr Varadkar are deeply misguided and risk creating a false and damaging divide between urban and rural Ireland.

“Framing rural Ireland as somehow dependent on urban taxpayers is both misleading and unhelpful. It ignores the reality that our economy is interconnected, with each sector relying on the other.

“While farmers do receive CAP supports, these reflect the realities of food production in a highly competitive market where farmers have little influence over the prices they receive, while production costs continue to rise. These payments help sustain viable food production in a highly regulated system and support farm incomes that would otherwise not be sustainable. In sectors such as beef, suckler, and sheep farming, incomes remain persistently low despite these supports,” he said.

READ ALSO: Ribbon cut on big upgrade of main Laois Kilkenny road at busy Tírlán creamery

He said the agri-food sector continues to make a significant contribution to the Irish economy through exports and employment.

“Agriculture is one of the country’s largest indigenous sectors, with agri-food exports now worth over €20 billion annually. Its impact goes far beyond the farm gate, and the idea that one part of the country is ‘paying for’ another does not reflect how the economy actually works,” he said.

Concluding, Mr Phelan said the focus must be on ensuring farmers are properly supported to meet the expectations being placed on them.

"Farmers are being asked to take on additional costs and responsibilities, often without any clear pathway to make that pay. Attempts to portray rural Ireland as a burden on the rest of the country are wrong, divisive, and show a complete lack of understanding of how the Irish economy actually works,” he said.