April 07, 2010

Cahill says Minister Gormley should 'cop-on' and drop Wildlife Bill 

The President of the country's second largest farmers' organisation has given his association's full support to the RISE (Rural Ireland Says Enough) campaign against the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2010. Jackie Cahill, President of ICMSA, said that farmers and the general rural population were astonished to see Minister Gormley devoting valuable legislative time and public resources to a matter that could only be described as utterly insignificant when set against the size and scale of the problems facing the country generally and farmers particularly.

Mr Cahill said that it was almost impossible to imagine how Minister Gormley could have decided that this was a matter that needed his attention.

"ICMSA members will share the irritation of people all over the country who wonder how it is that - in the midst of the worst economic and agricultural depression in 70 years - we have a senior cabinet minister who can find no more productive task with which to divert himself than the banning of a centuries-old hunt. Is Minister Gormley serious? Is his party serious? Where is the prioritising that we have a right to expect? Where is the sense of proportion and for how much longer can we expect rural deputies to stand aside in shameful silence while Irish farmers and Irish rural dwellers find their rights to build and live on their own land, their freedom to farm and their traditional social activities all eroded year-on-year by a party that seems barely able to disguise its outright dislike for rural Ireland and the people who live in it. We are entitled to ask deputies from those parties that do receive huge support in rural constituencies to stand up for the people they represent and impress upon Minister Gormley and his Green colleagues that we refuse to be ignored while a political and environmental   philosophy that has virtually no support outside some of our cities' leafier suburbs is steadily elevated to a decisive influence on the lives of people who have never given - nor ever will give - their support to it. We have here a perfect example of Minister Gormley acting on the advice of a tiny but vocal group and banning something that the silent majority know to be a traditional and humane country activity", said Mr Cahill.

"Rural Ireland is literally surviving hand-to-mouth. Our dairy farmers, for instance, have been made bankrupt through the policies formulated by the Commission and implemented enthusiastically by the Government of which Minister Gormley is such a prominent member. And we now have him, railroading through a ban that is unwanted, uncalled for, unfair and unprecedented in terms of the bias it represents against traditional country pursuits and interests. ICMSA will want to see some rural deputies rediscover their backbones and explain to the Greens, in general, and Minister Gormley, in particular, that it is simply not acceptable to have perfectly legitimate pastimes banned with an enthusiasm and speed that stands in stark contrast to the maddeningly slow and careless attitude that has been the attitude of the Government while our dairy sector collapsed over the last two years. We need some 'cop-on' here badly", concluded Mr Cahill.

Ends.     2 April 2010

Jackie Cahill,     087-2820663

President ICMSA.

Or

Cathal MacCarthy,        087-6168758 or 061-314677

ICMSA Press Officer.

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