IFA salary controversy feeds into crude stereotypes – McGrath

Independent TD Mattie McGrath has said the blatant lack of transparency in relation to former IFA General Secretary Pat Smith’s level of financial remuneration has opened up a huge credibility gap between the organisation and the broader farming community. Deputy McGrath was speaking as Mr Smith stepped down from his position after it was revealed that his salary package  for 2013 alone was in excess of €535,000:

“The vast majority of ordinary members of the Irish Farmers Association are incredibly incensed about the scale of the financial package that was received annually by Mr Smith, especially at a time when the average farm income was well below €30, 000.

There are clear similarities here to the kind of secretive culture that was so damaging to the charities sector last year, a sector that is still trying to recover from the damage inflicted on its public image.

Added to this however is the failure of the IFA to perceive that such actions will feed into the notorious myth around farmers and the farming community; a myth which says that their very real financial struggles are in some sense contrived.

Most of the farmers in this Country are subsisting on very modest incomes and rely in the main on the timely receipt of their grants; an issue that is still causing genuine hardship as we speak.

The top brass of the IFA have to realise that they have enough battles on their hands in trying to represent the authentic concerns of ordinary farmers without at the same time trying to fend off a scandal entirely of their own making,” concluded Deputy McGrath.