Michael Fitzmaurice: Urges Land Commission, defines family farm
Michael Fitzmaurice called for a reinvention of a Land Commission and argued for a clear, hard-and-fast definition of the "family farm" to guide caps and supports. He warned that larger holdings are expanding, that small farms struggle to compete with rising land values, and that policy must balance property rights with rural community needs.
Call for a Land Commission
Michael Fitzmaurice said a Land Commission-style reinvention in Ireland would work and argued it is necessary to buy farms to prevent continued consolidation. He cited historical results to support the approach - "Just to give a successful Land Commission in 1898, 98% of Irish farmers didn't own land. By 1927, it was 98% in the opposite direction."
Defining the family farm
He proposed a hard-and-fast definition based on who supplies the labour on the holding. "It should be the majority of the labour on that farm comes from the people on the farm," he said, and suggested illustrative thresholds - farms with around 150 cattle or fewer would typically qualify, while holdings of 400-600 cows or multiple leased units would not be regarded as family farms.
Tilting caps and supports
Fitzmaurice asked whether caps and payments should be tilted towards that family-farm definition to help smaller producers compete. He criticised broad political support for the "family farm" label without precise meaning and noted that milk and slaughter outputs are treated the same in the marketplace regardless of herd size, which obscures policy targeting.
Competition, bank funding and land values
He warned larger farmers are increasing in size because they can access more bank funding and persist through market pressures, while smaller farmers cannot compete - referencing land prices of around "22,000 an acre" as an example barrier. He said unchecked consolidation will have long-term effects on smaller producers and rural areas.
Property rights versus social good
On property rights, he pointed to examples such as SAFER negotiating around rights while advancing social objectives. He framed the policy trade-off as a choice between supporting the local GA team and keeping people in rural areas versus allowing individuals to maximise the value of their land, and asked which outcome policy should prioritise.
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Just a few quick ones, Daniel. In relation to how do we decide a family farm, what it is, right? I think both of you, we all agree on that, that that decision has to be made. Do you tilt the cap and everything towards that to try and bring them up to compete with others? Is that a solution in what you're saying? The Land Commission, do you agree that something like that needs to be brought in? And in the line of property rights, where do you need, where do you see, because the one there will say, we might criticise our property rights here, but by God, property rights in Europe can be whipped to you fairly quick compared with here. Where do you see that balance going? I agree completely with the novel of stuff Eddie has said, but it's going to take hard decisions to decide. And in my opinion, unless we have the likes of the Land Commission in that will buy farms, we'll be back here again. And the bigger land, they're getting bigger and bigger. Like, it's happening everywhere. There's no point in saying it's not. And the guy that's bigger is able to get more funding in the bank, is able to keep going, where the guy that's small, like what you were on about, you weren't able to compete with the 22,000, I think, off the top of my head, an acre. So you had to pull back. And that's going to have an effect down the road on you. And I'm just wondering what you think, Daddy. So just to throw on your tree, I suppose, on the Land Commission, yes, I do agree, a Land Commission style, I suppose, reinvention in Ireland would work. Just to give a successful Land Commission in 1898, 98% of Irish farmers didn't own land. By 1927, it was 98% in the opposite direction. So that just proves it can work. On the family farm, yes, I think we need to have a hard and fast definition of it. I'll put my head on a plate here on what a definition should be. It should be the majority of the labour on that farm comes from the people on the farm. In a target, like you're saying that an average herd of cows is about 100 cows, so it's anywhere between 150 cattle down would come in as a family farm. And I think they're not hard and fast, but I'm just throwing figures out. You have to start somewhere. I don't see, once you start going into 400, 500, 600 cows, in my mind, they're not family farms. When you're leasing multiple units, I don't see them as family farms either. But look, that's another day as well. And your question on the cap then, do we need to tilt the cap towards that definition 100%? That's the whole point of defining a family farm. I think that it's too easy, and I don't mean to criticise, I'd say, deputies here and senators here. Like, public representatives go out, and when they go out and they want to support agriculture, the first thing is always mentioned is the family farm and how they're completely in support of the family farm. But what exactly are they completely in support of? Like, as I mentioned earlier, when a farmer with 10 cows sends his milk to the creamery versus a farmer with 1,000 cows, it's the same milk in the tank, and they all go under that family farm banner. The same as if you slaughter a bullock, if you have 1,000 bullocks or one bullock, it's still all under that family farm banner. And we need to separate that out, and that's where we need to start. On the property rights side of things, I suppose it is something that other countries have proven, like SAFER have proven that they've managed to negotiate their way around property rights and, I suppose, respecting them while at the same time implementing that social good. Because it is, like, at the end of the day, this boils down to a choice between the local GA team and keeping people in rural areas versus the economic good of individuals that want to maximise the value of their land. So, like, do you sort out the few that want to sell land or the majority that are living in those rural areas? That's the question you need to ask yourself. Thank you.
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