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 Forty-two local Department of Agriculture offices are to be abolished in the most drastic re-organisation in the history of the Agri service, as part of cost cutting measures.
County Tipperary will lose four offices and twelve other Irish counties will be without a local centre. Thurles.Info understands that this plan has been given the green light by the present Government.
Location Of Enhanced offices
Enhanced offices will now be located in Cork (Cork City and Clonakilty), Kerry (Tralee), Limerick (Raheen), Waterford (Waterford City), Tipperary (Tipperary town), Wexford (Enniscorthy), Offaly (Tullamore), Meath (Navan), Kildare (Naas), Cavan (Cavan town), Leitrim (Drumshanbo), Donegal (Raphoe), Galway (Galway City) Mayo (Castlebar), and Roscommon (Roscommon town).
Location of intended closures
The offices targeted for closure in Tipperary are: Thurles, Clonmel, Cahir, and Nenagh, while offices in Dungarvan, Waterford Forestry Service, Sligo, Athlone, Mullingar, Baltinglass, Wicklow town, Birr, Monaghan town, Drogheda, Ballina, Claremorris, Letterkenny (two), Glenties, Donegal town, Carlow town (two), Ennis (two), Cork City (two), Mallow, Skibbereen, Tallaght, Loughrea, Tuam, Athenry, Killarney, Castleisland, Naas (Sallins Road office), Kilkenny, Portlaoise, Carrick-on-Shannon, Longford town and Dundalk will also be closed.
The Clonoulty Macra Committee in Co Tipperary have just launched their annual International Miss Macra Festival for the 38th occasion, at a press conference in Dundrum House Hotel.
From Thursday 30th July to Monday 2nd August next tractors, silage harvesters and milking machines will go silent. Farms throughout the 32 counties of Ireland will have all the appearance of being abandoned when the young farmers of Ireland converge on the village of Clonoulty, Thurles, Co Tipperary. Summer is a time of friendship, festivity and fun and the 38th annual International Miss Macra Festival promises all three.
The committee is delighted and honoured to be holding the festival, for the fifth year running, in the beautiful surroundings of Dundrum House Golf and Leisure Hotel. Set on 200 acres of rolling countryside, this 18th century Manor House Hotel is steeped in a tradition of genuine Irish hospitality, and its current owners, Austin and Mary Crowe have the vision and dedication to carry this tradition forward, while also creating one of Ireland’s finest golf and leisure resorts. This magnificent rural setting provides an idyllic background for the festival, which goes from strength to strength, with each passing year. The festival is the biggest events in the Macra farming calendar and the contestants, supporters, Macra members and the general public, eagerly await this event, annually.
This year the three selected adjudicators, Margaret Fogarty, representing Dundrum House Hotel, local poet and businesswoman Joan Pollard Carew, and the now legendary Declan Ryan, former member of Macra’s National executive and former chairman of the festival will have a difficult task on their hands, selecting a winner from the very beautiful, warm and friendly group of 26 contestants, chosen by their respective clubs, to participate.
The lucky winner of the prestigious title “International Miss Macra 2009” will receive a cheque for €1000, together with a Tipperary Crystal trophy and perpetual silver trophy, all sponsored by Dundrum House Hotel. Runners up will receive generous prizes from sponsor’s Marcedes Kearney Nu-Du Beauty Salon and Tipperary Co-Operative respectively. All of the contestants will be presented with a beautiful memento of the event from kind sponsors Michael’s Jeweller’s Thurles.
The committee look forward to seeing you in Dundrum and are preparing to give you all a true taste of real Tipperary hospitality and a weekend never to be forgotten.
For further information on this event contact Claire Ryan on 087-9819717 or email miss.macra@macra.ie
Watch this site for further updates including the weekends events.
 A large number of Tipperary farmers were among a group of over 7,000 protesters who gathered in the constituency of Minister Brendan Smith TD, in Co.Cavan yesterday to demonstrate their views regarding cuts to the agriculture sector. Farmers say their industry is being decimated by a number of recent cutbacks and recommendations.
Farmers are irate following recommendations made in the recent An Bord Snip‘s report, which calls for an end to the Suckler Cow Scheme and a winding down of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS). Under REPS, the Government has stopped accepting new applicants to the subsidy scheme, but existing participants will continue to receive payments for up to five years. However, the IFA says the move is another cutback on top of cuts in Disadvantaged Area Payments and Suckler Cow Payments made earlier this year.
IFA President Padraig Walshe stated that the recommendations contained Colm McCarthy’s report were a ‘barefaced attack on rural Ireland’.
Dept of Agriculture to reorganise Tipperary office networks
Meanwhile the Irish Department of Agriculture is now most likely to re-organise its Tipperary office network which will have a major effect right across County Tipperary. A new structure of approximately sixteen offices will provide for the co-location of staff currently based in the twenty-eight District Veterinary Offices, twenty Agricultural Environment and Structures Offices and ten Forestry Offices, shedding 400 jobs of the current workforce of 4,000 employees. In this report the Agricultural Environment Structures Office in Thurles, the Agricultural Environment Structures Office in Clonmel, the Cahir Forest Service Office and the Nenagh District Veterinary Office are all recommended for closure. If recommendations in the report are followed North Tipperary will now be served by Limerick while in the south of the county, Tipperary Town will be the centralised location.
North Tipp Fianna Fail Deputy Maire Hoctor stated that she is hoping that staff employed within Nenagh and Thurles can be accommodated locally in both the Revenue and Social Welfare offices.
 “Replacing local fresh high quality produce with foreign imports is crippling the Irish Farming Community” stated Deputy Noel Coonan
North Tipperary‘s farming community is being brought to its knees by a Fianna Fail Government, which continually fails to protect farmers and the food industry, according to Deputy Noel Coonan. The Deputy’s comments relate to issues between supermarkets and Irish food producers, current milk prices and low beef prices.
Deputy Coonan stated:-
“We saw frustrated potato farmers stage a protest at a meeting of senior Tesco officials during the week in Meath where they voiced their just concerns over the importation of potatoes from abroad. The decision to replace local fresh produce with imports affects not just farmers but those working in delivery and packaging too. The Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith has to take adequate steps to protect this indigenous vital industry and immediately outline the Government’s plans to protect jobs in the industry. The farming community has the potential to play a strong role in revitalising the economy. The frustration felt by potato farmers echoes from dairy and beef farmers too. Liquid milk producers are losing out severely per litre for every litre they produce. Beef farmers also need a higher share of the consumer spend on the products they supply. Producers are not being rewarded for their efforts and are effectively being forced off the land. The margin is too great between what farmers sell and what the supermarkets sell it for. Minister Smith has previously described the agri-food sector as Ireland’s most important indigenous sector, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout every county in the country, at both producer and processor levels. Yet we see farmers facing cut after cut which hinders the development of the sector. The Government is doing nothing to stem the drift from the land when the country really needs agriculture to drag it out of this current recession.
Fine Gael Agriculture Spokesperson Michael Creed TD has questioned Minister Smith on how he proposes to protect and increase jobs in the food industry in view of threats posed to employment in the sector by the major multiples. This is an issue that is of grave importance and we will continue to question and press the Minister until we get an adequate reply.”
Deputy Coonan said that in contrast Fine Gael recognises the potential of the agri-food sector to stimulate job creation and economic growth and the party is committed to ensuring that Irish producers are competing on a level playing field with other countries.
 Frank Mockler, a local farmer from Thurles in Co. Tipperary, suggested to those assembled at the recent AIB bank’s AGM that the “top brass” in AIB should now be welded to wind turbines to stand as “rotating monuments to our national greed”.
Some shareholders present were highly amused at his vision, but Mr Mockler, who was attending his first bank AGM, having driven over 100 miles from his home, was far from gleeful. Mr Mockler, who had travelled to attend the event with his friend and fellow shareholder, Denis Walsh, continued “When our children ask what became of our accumulated wealth, we can use the well known lines from the Bob Dylan lyric, ‘the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind’,” he stated.
Mr Mockler, together with his friend had both lost considerable funds as a result of their misplaced trust in AIB investments. While not depending on this money, Mr Mockler had hoped to pass it on to benefit his families future, and watching a wind farm operating near his home had given him the inspiration for his turbine idea.
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