A farm organisation has said that recent comments by former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar are "deeply misguided and risk creating a false and damaging divide between urban and rural Ireland".

Varadkar has been slammed for comments he made on a recent podcast appearance.

Speaking with Matt Cooper on the Path to Power podcast, Varadkar claimed that what is "in the interests of farmers in the agriculture industry is by and large not in the interests of Ireland as a nation".

He went on to state that farmers "still see themselves as the people who bring money and jobs into Ireland, where actually a lot of the time they bring costs on Ireland".

Varadkar went on to say also: "People in rural Ireland are very quick to tell people in urban Ireland that ‘we're the real workers, we’re the ones paying all the bills, we’re the ones feeding the country.

"I think maybe we need to be a little bit more blunt in urban Ireland and say, actually that's not the case, we’re the ones paying all the bills and you’re the ones in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits that other people don’t get."

'Damaging divide'

Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) rural development chair, Edmond Phelan said the recent comments are "deeply misguided" and they "risk creating a false and damaging divide between urban and rural Ireland".

“Framing rural Ireland as somehow dependent on urban taxpayers is both misleading and unhelpful," Phelan said.

"It ignores the reality that our economy is interconnected, with each sector relying on the other."

Payments

Phelan said that while farmers do receive Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) supports, these reflect the "realities of food production in a highly competitive market where farmers have little influence over the prices they receive, while production costs continue to rise".

"These payments help sustain viable food production in a highly regulated system and support farm incomes that would otherwise not be sustainable," he continued.

"In sectors such as beef, suckler, and sheep farming, incomes remain persistently low despite these supports.”

'Significant contribution'

In response to the comments by Varadkar, Phelan said the agri-food sector continues to make a "significant contribution to the Irish economy through exports and employment".

“Agriculture is one of the country’s largest indigenous sectors, with agri-food exports now worth over €20 billion annually," he said.

"Its impact goes far beyond the farm gate, and the idea that one part of the country is paying for another does not reflect how the economy actually works."

Phelan added: “The focus must be on ensuring farmers are properly supported to meet the expectations being placed on them.

"Farmers are being asked to take on additional costs and responsibilities, often without any clear pathway to make that pay.

"Attempts to portray rural Ireland as a burden on the rest of the country are wrong, divisive and show a complete lack of understanding of how the Irish economy actually works."

'Varadkar let the mask drop'

Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan has challenged Fine Gael to "explicitly and unequivocally reject" the controversial remarks made by Varadkar.

“To have a former Taoiseach, blithely offering sweeping and denigrating remarks about rural Ireland, should not surprise anyone who has been paying close attention to his party’s policies," Nolan said.

“That being said, for Varadkar to let the mask drop in so casual and callous a fashion is utterly remarkable.

Nolan said that farmers and the Irish agriculture are "major contributors to this state".

"They have a value that cannot simply be measured in the kind of monetary and reductionist terms that [Varadkar] implies," she said.

“They were here long before the tech industries and they will be here long after, should those industries ever decide to relocate back to the US or elsewhere.”

Nolan added that Ireland's farmers are "grounded here".

"There is no ‘them and us’. They are who we are as a people and who we have been for countless generations," she said.