Pat McCormack, President of ICMSA, reacted to Green Party Minister of State Pippa Hackett’s comment about horses last week. This was after she suggested livestock farmers could possibly introduce horses as a way of reducing emissions while supporting the equestrian sector.
McCormack said: “ICMSA fully accepts that we must ‘think outside the box’ when it comes to emissions and the transition to lower carbon. We are up for that; we have always been up for that. All we ask for is that the policies and ideas be based in some reality and we are struggling here to see the basis on which Minister Hackett can come to the conclusion that introducing horses onto threatened family dairy farms represents economic and environmental progress? Perhaps we have missed something, in which case we’ll be grateful to have it explained to us”.
The ICMSA President wondered “what we were expected to do with 5,000 or 10,000 extra horses? Did the Minister envisage Ireland exporting horse meat market, or a quadrupling of demand for racing bloodstock? What were the farmers to do with these horses?”
He concluded: “We would think that unless you have sound ideas that stand up to some kind of commercial scrutiny, you’d nearly be better off saying nothing. It was the Government that announced that we had to move past talking and into action and – that being the case – it’s really time for ministers themselves to stop ‘thinking out loud’ and come back instead with some hard and logical proposals that address, for instance, the very first principle of farming: what are we producing and who’s going to buy it? ICMSA would think that’s a reasonable question to start with and we look forward to next Month’s Budget giving more coherent answers”.