*Caroline Lynch’s farm in Bridgetown.
YOUNG people must be given an incentive if farming in rural Ireland is to continue says IFA and family and social affairs committee member Caroline Lynch.
Caroline Lynch runs Ross House, a mid-size farm in Bridgetown with her father Patrick. The picturesque suckler to beef finishing farm is situated just across from counties Tipperary and Limerick across the River Shannon.
She covers a range of topics in her work with the IFA ranging from agricultural education, farm safety, pensions and social affairs. She says there’s a huge number of issues facing farmers in Clare and beyond currently. “In Clare, we’re dealing with TB on farms and it’s a really tough situation. It’s the most stressful situation on any farm. Generation renewal is a huge thing. We really have to get our act together on how to keep young people on the farm who can earn a living. We also need to look after the older generation so that they can feel comfortable passing on the farm and so that they can live off it as well”.
Established in 1962, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the European Union’s (EU) agricultural policy to ensure a stable supply of affordable and safe food, support farmers, and promote sustainable rural development. She felt it has lost its purpose. “I think this CAP is so important. If we don’t do this and do it properly this time we’ll miss another generation. It’s going to be very worrying. We all need food to be produced. Farmers produce food. That’s what the CAP was based on. But now CAP has been split in so many ways that it has lost its purpose and we really need to get back to that”.
The mass emigration of young people from Ireland to countries like Canada and Australia is already having a detrimental impact on the livelihoods of Irish farms, something which Caroline says will only get worse unless something is done soon. “I think we’ve already missed a generation and if we miss another one, I don’t know how food is going to be produced”.
“A lot of young people want to go and travel and absolutely go and travel, widen your views, see the world. I think it’s a brilliant opportunity but if they don’t have something to come back to, they’re not going to come back. There’s young people that would love to stay in this country but between housing and rents, it’s very hard to rent a place at this stage. You can’t get planning, planning is becoming more difficult so people don’t see a future. If you want to go home and farm and you can’t even build a house on the farm, you’re not going to stay around”, the Bridgetown native added.
The impacts of this decline are being felt across the country and Clare is no exception. 70,000 people left Ireland between April 2023 and 2024 according to the most recent statistics from the Central Statistics Office with 11,000 heading for Australia alone. This is just 10,000 off the highs of 80,000 people a year leaving experienced in the years 2012 and 2013 (CSO). The trend is something Caroline is keen to see reversed.
“If we don’t sort out and keep people in rural Ireland, especially on the west coast of Ireland, the place is just going to disintegrate. In East Clare we’re lucky enough that we have slightly larger farms. In West Clare, I think the biggest problem is that you have smaller holdings and a lot of time they’re scattered so you’re split in what you can do”.
There are a number of incentives that could help to encourage more young people into farming but Caroline highlights the importance of Agri Aware at youth level. The IFA offshoot is responsible for bridging the gap between urban and rural Ireland through youth education. “When I was younger most people were only a generation from farming and had a good idea of how farming worked, how food was produced, what a potato looked like, how an egg was created and how milk was produced. That’s gone. People are a bit away from it and children don’t understand it so it’s a huge, huge role and Agri Aware covers that”, Caroline explains.
“The IFA is involved as well, and especially in making submissions to the Department of Education on how to promote sustainable food production and that’s very important,” she added.
