Martin Stapleton emerges as a serious IFA presidential candidate

Limerick’s Martin Stapleton has emerged as a leading candidate to become the next President of the Irish Farmers’ Association in a campaign that will end in December.

Seizing the opportunity to reestablish the IFA as a fighting machine for Irish farmers, his campaign centres around strengthening four key pillars underpinning the needs of the 72,000 IFA members who are eligible to elect him - Respect, Unity, Freedom to Farm and Farm Income.

Already there is a groundswell of support from farmers throughout the country on those core issues urging him to lead the fight for a better future.

Holding a strong track record of commitment and achievement with IFA, he is the current National Treasurer; former Chair of the National Farm Business Committee and Returning Officer for the organisation.

A native of Oola, County Limerick on the Tipperary border, Martin is married to Siobhan with three teenage children and together they run a successful dairy farm.

Having strived to build up their family farm inherited from previous generations, he is adamant that ‘as a family farmer, wishing to honour the legacy of my parents and theirs before them, the urge to lead IFA comes from wanting all farmers to have the freedom to farm’.

He sees unity and cohesion as the IFA’s greatest assets and under his leadership, a formidable, unified organisation will again be a force to be reckoned with in Ireland and Brussels with the aim of delivering tangible results for all farmers.

In a campaign that is taking him to the four corners of Ireland to meet IFA members, he is calling for farmers to unite to build a powerful IFA lobby.

‘Farmers are under severe pressure’, he said ‘and top of their issues is falling commodity prices in all sectors. I am adamant that price supports must be made available to all farmers as a priority.’

As decided by the IFA National Council in July, voting will follow a hybrid model. Each member will be posted a ballot paper in November which they may post or bring to a branch AGM.

This will add to the convenience of members wishing to vote and Martin Stapleton is urging all members to use their vote as active members of a strong farming lobby group.