Watch: Irish farm machinery sector has 'so much scope to grow' - new FTMTA president
The new president of the Farm Tractor and Machinery Trade Association (FTMTA) wants to secure government support to grow the Irish farm machinery sector.
Jennifer Ryall said the sector is worth €4.8 billion a year to the economy and supports 25,000 jobs, which "are rural, well-paid jobs".
However Ryall believes believes that one element that could help the Irish machinery industry expand further is if it can harness government support, particularly in relation to grants.
The FTMTA in partnership with ifac published an Economic Report on the Value of the Farm Machinery Industry in Ireland late last year.
It showed that aside from the annual €4.8 billion that the industry is worth to the country, after applying national multipliers, every €1 of output generates an additional €0.85 in the economy.
"On the back of our economic report, it showed that there were only 6% of our members who were going to avail of government grants, which is a very low number.
"We want to see how the government can help us, help our members to avail of grants so that we can grow our businesses, be it a capital investment grant or if it's a solar investment grant or anything in between," she said.
The new FTMTA president is the first woman to hold the role and is proud to be among the second generation running her family business.
Ryall’s Farm and Industrial Equipment, in Watergrasshill, Co. Cork has been in operation for over 40 years.
She said: “The business was set up in 1981 by my parents, Robert and Sylvia Ryall.
"They started out over in a shed at my grandparent's farm and my dad has grown it into the business that it is today.”
Ryall considers the FTMTA to be “vitally important”.
“They work for the dealers, the distributors, and the manufacturers.
“It is a chance for all aspects of the machinery spectrum to come together, to share ideas, to solve problems, to lobby government.
"Obviously, promotion of the industry is also a massive one through our shows that we have every two years, and through the conference then that we would have hold every, every second year.
"But it's mainly that we're working on behalf of everybody in the industry to promote it and to support it and to help grow the industry," she added.
One key issue the organisation's president would like to address during her term is the perception of the sector in general - and some of what she believes are the misconceptions around it.
“The technicians and the workshop...people have an old knowledge of it.
“Yes, there are spanners and dirt and stuff still involved, but it's so technologically advanced now that it is very different.
"A lot of it is using your diagnostic equipment on machinery that has just come forward so much - it's a really evolving, exciting industry to get involved in," she said.
