ICSA 25th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS

THE Irish Cattle & Sheep Farmers’ Association will be hosting its 25 th anniversary dinner celebration In Kilkenny on 7 th September. The evening is to celebrate ICSA’s achievements over the last 25 years and to honour those founding cattle and sheep farmers who dedicated themselves to establishing a professional association that would be the voice for the drystock sector in Ireland.

EU Commissioner for Agriculture & Rural Development Phil Hogan will be the special guest at the event which is taking place in Hotel Kilkenny.

Joining the Commissioner will be Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed TD and a host of the association’s former presidents as well as members past and present and a wide range of local agri business interests.

Following dinner, the worlds of sport and farming will come together with a panel discussion hosted by RTE’s Marty Morrissey. Kilkenny hurler TJ Reid will be joined by Clodagh Cassin who is a member of the Irish Women’s hockey panel and is the star goalkeeper for UCD where she studies agricultural science. The line-up is completed by Irish rugby legend John ‘ The Bull’ Hayes.

ICSA president Patrick Kent, a wellknown Belgian Blue breeder from New Ross in Co Wexford, expects an excellent mix of farming discussion combined with a great social night out.

Mr Kent added that having a local as EU Commissioner definitely has its benefits. “Now in his fifth year as EU Commissioner, Mr Hogan is currently in the process of reforming the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) so there will no doubt be plenty to discuss on the night. He has made a lot of progress in tackling unfair trading practices in the food chain and his CAP proposals will attract a lot of debate, but ICSA is keeping pressure on the Government to support a fully funded CAP. Without adequate funding, no CAP reform can be a success and this is a matter for the EU heads of state. We will continue to engage constructively with Commissioner Hogan as well and the night will enable any interested farmers to meet him and put forward their views.”

All farmers and their families are welcome to attend and a limited number of tickets are still available.

For further details, see our event programme,

https://icsaireland.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ICSA-25 th-Anniversary-Programme- 002-1.pdf

Regular event updates can be found on www.icsaireland.com

For ticket enquiries, please contact ICSA on 057 8662120 or email info@ icsaireland.com

Blazing the trail in Brussels in the early days, founding members of the newly constituted ICSA (L-R) Jimmy Cosgrave Snr, Albert Thompson, Bertie Cunningham and Pat Lalor.

ICSA president Patrick Kent and general secretary Eddie Punch push for a fully funded CAP with EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan in Brussels.

Members of the ICSA sheep committee protest against the introduction of mandatory EID tagging for all sheep in May 2018.