Irish Farmer Party and the agriculture lobby

A

arbitron

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A couple of us strayed off topic recently on another thread and ended up talking about the possibility of a new farmer's party. The discussion was deleted so I can't reproduce it verbatim. The general gist was that a farmer's party could be popular and elect a significant number of TDs.

I felt that was unlikely and that even if they did get TDs it would be at the expense of independents, FF or FG rather than the more environmentally-minded Soc Dems, Labour, PBP, or Greens, so it would be a wash in the end.

Does anyone see a future for a party with a single focus and such a narrow base? And do people really think that farmers are currently under-represented?
 
There will be others who are much more informed on this than I am (and plenty more who won't let their ignorance get in the way) but if the recent EPA standdown is anything to go by then the farmers still have plenty of clout with politicians in power. So in answer to your question at the end, although farmers will (and always do) protest to the contrary, they do still seem to achieve better representations than many other organisations in this country.
 
It's worked in other countries, the Netherlands being a case in point in recent times. There was a farmers party in Ireland in the 20s and Clann na Talmhan in the 40's and 50's.

If if focuses solely on farmers, it will get votes but possibly not enough to get TD's elected. If they can broaden the base to make it a genuine rural Ireland party, then it might get a handful elected but that is all it needs to hold the balance of power

However, different farming groups have different aims, the ICMSA would have a very different outlook from a small farmer in Mayo for example. Likewise, the green/organic grouping will have different views. But if they can get a collective agenda, and focus on other areas and not just farming, so rural housing, planning, roads etc, it could do ok
 
A farmer's party would be great Arbitron!
Although I think farmers are a diverse enough group. You mightn't get them all to agree on all issues.
And numerically there are not that many farmers so I'm not sure how much support they would have.
And given that most Irish people are only about one generation removed from the land there might be great support from people even in cities.
 
Clann na Talmhan didn't vanish, they largely merged into the 2 civil war parties, who still have extensive memberships in the farming community.
A large chunk of the FG membership in North Fingal for example are full time farmers.
 
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