Would you support a new Rural Political Party

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120542369#Comment_120542369

Farming sites is a logical farming enterprise, if it's allowed. Farms are businesses and look at different models to generate income. The current owners will look at whatever incentives, grants and regulations and make decisions that suits their needs. You can get a great multiplier in value on your agricultural land if you can sell it as sites. The downside of course is that the land is lost to other farm enterprise production.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543816#Comment_120543816

There appear to be two separate initiatives, one spearheaded by Michael Collins, the other by Michael Fitzmaurice.

https://www.thesun.ie/news/10610763/ireland-new-political-parties-tds-plot-rural-protest/

As you suggest, it seems these parties, if both were to get off the ground, would have significantly different agendas.

Water John

The Michael Collins/Mattie McGrath would seem to be fishing in the area of Aontu.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543909#Comment_120543909

IMO that one is less likely to materialise. The Healy Reas have already said they're not interested and I think most other potential recruits will eventually decide they are better off cultivating their own gardens...

Castlekeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543470#Comment_120543470

No, not because we are "the highest". Every sector needs to reduce and has targets. Agriculture has the lowest % reduction target due to the reasons I outlined, and in ten years time will pro rata be even higher than now. This does not make our agricultural sector more environmentally damaging than our European counterparts.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120529334#Comment_120529334

The things being proposed are very much a Farmers Party which will quickly become a change nothing "farmers say NO" party and we will get lads like you see in the mining areas of England, France and the US.

The "my daddy was a miner, his daddy was a miner, his daddy's daddy was a miner. So I'm voting Brexit/Le Pen/Trump because they lie to me about protecting that rose tinted life"

Rural areas need better road links between hubs, better public transport and better economies in the old market towns.

Generally in Ireland a new party needs a few sitting TDs to break away to get it going.

older by the day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544064#Comment_120544064

Good point breezy. We need a farmer says NO party. We have been the punch bag of every inbred bollax who gets an idea. A militant wing would be handy too. If we don't like a comment or a law we can burn down the Reichstag. Have sinn fein any hand book left over from a few years ago. A few tips on knee capping and kidnapping always handy.

Democracy is getting a bit tired when the majority is being forced by the minority.

If we wait the family farming will go like the fishermen in West cork

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544161#Comment_120544161

Are you calling farmers the majority ?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544270#Comment_120544270

As a city dweller I would happily support a party that can help the towns and villages the majority of my friends either come from or commute from.

Thing about a city is only about half the people I know are from a city and about 10% of the people I work with grew up in a city.

What I won't support is NIMBYs and people who think 1950s ideas can be maintained.

Castlekeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544242#Comment_120544242

I don't know do you, but tbh does it matter?

There's absolutely no part of society facing up to the climate/ environment catastrophe in any kind of realitistic way. Everybody thinks someone else is to blame and should change, but hey, BAU in the meantime.

We're all off to he'll in a handcart. At the way things are going, god only knows what we'll see in our lifetimes.

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544242#Comment_120544242

Only reason that it has a lower limit is that there is a realisation that it is not the polluter.

It is the only industry that removes carbon.

The emissions from livestock is carbon that has been removed over the previous 21 days.

The emissions from agriculture are from fuel and electricity burned and fertiliser spread.

Agriculture got ####ed over in Paris in 2015.

Respiration (from all living beings) is not counted, including that from farm animals. It is assumed that the only source of carbon in respiration has been from the fuel or food eaten, and as all food is plant based, this carbon was removed through photosynthesis.

As it so happens, this is the exact same source as carbon in ruminant methane....but that IS counted...factor that...

Irish cows are attributed to belch the International calculated figure of 120kg per year. Teagasc measurements will show this to be 20 to 25% lower for Irish cows pasture systems.

Even attributing the 28 times damaging effect that methane causes and giving it its CO2-EQ figure, added to the cows 3650kg respired co2 (not counted), the CO2 removed by the grass the cow ate far exceeds and emissions she has.

So where did the carbon go?

Some is left over in the soil (currently being measured), but the rest went on as food for humans..the milk and the meat..and subsequently YOUR EMISSIONS..

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544710#Comment_120544710

Can I ask what do you as a city dweller have to do to reduce emissions?

What part of the electricity or transport or building sector emissions do you have to counter?

Whatever your answer is...a farmer has to do all these as well.

Food production has its own 25%, plus all its costs involved in reaching all the rest..

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544571#Comment_120544571

You've hit on a problem there. What is rural? Dublin and Cork people talk about the towns as rural. Town people refer to themselves as Urban not Rural. The "Rural" that needs representation is not the "Non-City" areas.

bogman_bass

If a party isn’t to worry about towns then they may forget about being elected.

For example, my own constituency of Meath West. If you don’t do well in Navan you don’t get elected. Thems the facts

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120545042#Comment_120545042

The villages and random crossroad areas need better connection to the non city urban areas and those non city urban areas need growth so that the "real" rural people don't have to travel as long for work and amenities.

Like what exactly can any party or anyone at all do for the "one pub at a crossroads" type village.

If you want a rural party because " 5 of the 6 buildings in ballyxyz used to be booming pubs and we need that back" then sorry to say that world is gone forever.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544982#Comment_120544982

A self employed (like farmers) city dweller has to do many things and take financial hits on their business to reduce emissions too.

It's all well and good to say "what do you do" to an office or shop worker who has no say in the companies practices.

Also you can be both. I know a fair few Limerick city dwellers who are active farmers.

Castlekeeper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543008#Comment_120543008

By all means if it is suits and is within planning guidelines, but I wouldn't say it was an entitlement. If there were such an entitlement, would the children of non landowners/farmers in the locality be entitled to CPO sites?

A neighbours family are at that craic, 3 houses built in the last 15 years, another 1 going up now, but 2 of the first ones are empty. Time and time again you'd see a lot of the houses built on free sites sold on.

John_Rambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544982#Comment_120544982

City dwellers, particularly apartment dwellers have tiny carbon footprints in comparison to someone that's built & lives in a one off house in a rural setting.

older by the day

Look don't be worrying about it. Council/euro elections are around the corner. The general election in 25. I am surprised some of the rats have not left the ship already. Green will be like a curse word in the next year. Putting back on the tax on fuel the first of June. FF and FG TDS are bound to get the message that they are in trouble. Pity they didn't put the 10 euro congestion charge in the city. Really fuuuck themselves

Anyway it's a load of shite. When grass and bushes and trees ain't measured aint counted to see what carbon sequestration is happening. I would think a lot of farms in poorer land are taking in more than giving out.

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120545200#Comment_120545200

The demise of buildings that used to be thriving rural pubs is part of the reason why rural Ireland needs a party or at least a collective of individuals that will adequately represent its views . Rural pubs are closed or closing because a government removed from the people it purports to represent decided to make it an offence to drive after drinking a few pints . Something that had been done for decades without issue .

There was no clamour from people living in rural areas for this change so the question that can be asked is how it occurred. Similarly with several issues . Decisions being made at a remove from those affected .

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547673#Comment_120547673

Rural pubs are closed or closing because a government removed from the people it purports to represent decided to make it an offence to drive after drinking a few pints . Something that had been done for decades without issue .

Your recollection of events differs to mine (and I say that as someone who stupidly took part in the culture)!

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120546637#Comment_120546637

The food that is being produced by Irish farmers - what is happening to it ? I don’t think Kerry or ABP dump too much much of it .

The reality is that countries like Ireland with a temperate climate on the edge of Europe needs to at least double production to feed the worlds growing population. A billion extra mouths in twelve years need feeding . The greenies seem to have overlooked that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547673#Comment_120547673

Surely the off-licence was the final nail for rural pubs?

paddysdream

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120546745#Comment_120546745

I meant that they were entitled to do it,not that it was an entitlement.Slight but important distinction.

Planning guidelines seem to be at the mercy of the individual planner.Get someone who is not in favour of what you are looking to build and its hard to overcome their personal dislike of it.Had it here years ago when building my own house.In the end just agreed with him and went ahead and built what I had intended in the first case.Little pissy stuff like telling us that we couldn't use red brick on the front despite the closest house to us having built with this about 2 years beforehand.

What has CPO to do with it ?If you want a site then buy one if someone is willing to sell.If you have a sibling/parent etc willing to give you one then all the better.

Building a house and selling it on is not illegal.Perhaps they are in the business of making a few quid or trying to.Personally wouldn't sell a site here at home for any money.

paddysdream

Enough of Greenie stuff is other threads so to answer the question from the OP I have no idea if I would vote for a new Rural Party.Depends on the candidates and the policy platform they run on.

Hard enough to break the mould as people usually fall back on the familiar,in this case FF or FG normally.

paddysdream

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547673#Comment_120547673

Wouldn't be an issue for me to be honest.Most rural pubs are dying out because people under 30 seem to have no interest in them.

The drink driving thing is a bit of a pain but for example went over for a couple last night.In at 11 out by 12:30 and 3 pints.There were 8 of us there and of those ,6 were driving home,the other 2 live within a couple of hundred yards of the pub.Probably 3 to 5 pints on average consumed by those driving home.

No Guard will be arsed with a checkpoint unless its the Traffic Corp and haven't seen one around here in my lifetime.

Pubs are just not the thing for 20/30 year olds anymore in the main I think.Rare to see anyone under 30 in the local here.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547673#Comment_120547673

See this is why a rural party is pointless. Totally stuck in the past. My daddy and my daddy's daddy stuff as I said earlier.

Pubs are going because people won't sit in them 7 days a week spending all their wages in there. It's not sustainable to have little villages full of pubs.

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547727#Comment_120547727

Food waste is a shame and every effort should be made to reduce or eliminate it . It is however beyond the farm gate or even perhaps beyond the industry gate .

Producing food to feed a world population that is growing at the rate at which it is cannot be regarded as overproduction. Meat and dairy production in temperate climates has to increase . There is no other way to cheaply feed the masses unless the greens have some other answer . Would it better if it was produced in feedlots in the desert ?

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547673#Comment_120547673

Unbelievable! As someone living very rural I can tell you the local pubs aren't failing for any reason other than the young people would rather go to the pubs and nightclubs in the nearest town. And, their loss isn't anything like a major issue for rural people. Indeed, for many the existence or not of a local pub is of little consequence. You seem to be stuck in a decades old view of rural life. As for drink driving, it's incredulous that anybody anywhere still condones it.

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547988#Comment_120547988

Not every pub goer or now former pub goer is of a demographic to want to go to the pubs or clubs in the nearest town . Pubs were centres where rural people gathered , most of them farming or working locally . Most would be past the nightclub phase . Do they not matter ?

The existence of the rural pub may have little consequence to you but to me it’s demise is indicative of a greater issue that being people making decisions that suit themselves and to hell with those affected.

breezy1985

Well if getting to the pub is the big problem then thank God for the Green party who have been pushing an unprecedented rural bus scheme including front door pick up and drop off where possible.

And are also pushing the rural hackney scheme. There has probably never been a party has done as much for rural transport as the Greens.

Also nobody thinks a village having no pub is ok. A village trying to sustain a whole bunch of them with a 1k population is another story.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120547926#Comment_120547926

The intensive agri lobby would want to get their tune straight on this cos the likes of Copa Cogeaca are now whinging about Ukrainian Grain undermining commodity prices across the EU after spending last year saying that measures to improve the sustainability of farming like pesticide reduction would lead to some sort of mass famine - they also support the biofuel scam that has diverted vast amounts of some of the best farmland in the EU away from food production. Same in the US which now diverts nearly 40% of its corn crop to biofuel. Also food waste in the EU last year hit 180 million tonnes, clearly the system it broken...

PS: It should also be pointed out that most of the food inflation worldwide recently was down to logistic costs, not lack of production eg. the cost of shipping agri products is now multiple of what it was pre- Covid with an industry wide shortage of shipping containers etc.

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548197#Comment_120548197

Front door pick up is a concept from someone with absoluty no understanding rural logistics.

It sounds like something that'd come out of a lad pissed drunk, smoking weed and trying to sound coherently intellegent during a late night "think in"..

The wans where we fix the world at 3am..

An alternative to the pub in the evening both rural and urban would be good.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548445#Comment_120548445

Well it works.

Do you have a better idea for rural transport ?

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548570#Comment_120548570

Cars..

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548579#Comment_120548579

Well as someone who works with the elderly I can definitely say that's not an option for everyone.

Are you against rural transport ?

What exactly do you see as wrong with Local Link ?

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548608#Comment_120548608

The local link goes once a week from our nearest village (4 miles away) to our nearest town (12 miles away) and returns 3 hours later.

How in the ###k is that a solution to anything?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548629#Comment_120548629

And some places still have none at all. But other places have quite a good service.

Same as every bus service since the dawn of time some places have better frequency and routes than others.

But I suppose just because it doesn't suit you personally or far more likely because I mentioned the Green party you are bitter about it.

alps

If you had to pass the door of every house in this parish, I reckon 7 hours wouldn't do it.

alps

It takes 2 post office vans to do it. How long a day do they put in?

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548668#Comment_120548668

It doesn't say it will stop everywhere for everyone. It's says where possible it will deviate and it's something you work out with the local operator because another good thing about Local Link is it is operated by local companies. It is already up and running and I have seen it in operation.

But work away and set up your Farmers party that will bring back the drink driving, the 7 pubs in a tiny village and give every farmer their own unicorn.

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548652#Comment_120548652

Green is another word for inexperienced or naive.

Green party gotta get this rural public transport out of their head. It can get you to school or college. If you work 9 to 5 in the city centre and can match with school times, there's some hope.

But we're staying with cars, like it or not.

What powers them is the question..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548728#Comment_120548728

So you won’t be voting for the new rural party?

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548728#Comment_120548728

It's only over production if everyone is adequately fed otherwise unequal distribution is part of the problem. Just because some people dump food doesn't mean there's too much food in the country/ world.

Note we export food in the same way as other products like pharmaceuticals for example, we don't say the pharmaceutical companies are over producing even though they produce more than we need here.

How much is too much depends on many things. Do we ban imports and exports?

What do you mean what should we do with our emission targets.

Presumably aim to meet them, fail miserably and set even more ambitious targets we're less likely to meet.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548759#Comment_120548759

Politics used to attract the best calibre of person. Nowadays it seems to attract people that want a profile but don’t have the intellectual horsepower or willingness to achieve it in the real world.

It has become a calculated game at sharing out the goodies in the good times or hardship in the bad times for the purpose of being re-elected.

Farmers have signed up to reduce emissions.

Id say we will have to go nuclear to have any chance.

Not so sure how practical electric tractors or even cars are. Might have to use hydrogen there.

Industry uses an awful lot of power as well. No way can that reliably come from wind which will further suggest nuclear.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548579#Comment_120548579

I think Ryan and his fellow travellers could be best described as "Blueshirts on Bikes"😁

alps

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548955#Comment_120548955

🤣🤣

J.O. Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120548784#Comment_120548784

I didn't say that, first thing I said we should aim to meet targets, and i didn't specify agriculture.

I outlined official policy that if targets are not met even bigger targets will apply to the next budget.

This applies to all sectors.

Do you every sector (except agriculture if you like) will meet all targets? By the way farmers are also impacted same as you by all targets outside agriculture.

Targets for all sectors were set on the basis of a number decided upon a number that sounded good to politicians, even at the COP that's what happened. It was only after setting targets that they started to look at how to achieve it. When there was negotiations then it was based on the opening position set by the government and looking to get something less.

It was like me deciding a household budget and deciding I needed to cut 20% on the food budget, 15% on electricity and 30% on luxuries. These may or may not be realistic. I might be able to achieve them easily, they may be a little challenging or they may be virtually impossible to achieve.

What I should do is look at where I'm spending and see what might be possible as a starting point. If I was still short I might have to look at if I could tighten things a bit more but at least I'd have it based in some kind of reality.

Setting an unrealistic budget and missing it is not going to make me work harder to meet a tighter budget next year. It will more likely demoralise me.