Leo Varadkar’s remarks about rural Ireland were “ill-judged” and have caused “unease” among farmers, the President of the IFA has warned. 

Last week, the former Taoiseach said that people in Ireland’s cities need to be more “blunt” in emphasising their economic contribution to the country. 

He argued that urban Ireland is “paying all the bills”, while rural residents are “in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits that other people don’t get.”

Dr Varadkar also argued 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”.

On The Claire Byrne Show, IFA President Francie Gorman said the remarks had dismayed him. 

“He was Taoiseach of our country and I would have worked with him for four or five months when I became president of IFA and always felt that he was collegiate in how he went about doing his business and that he had a real regard for people in rural Ireland,” he explained. 

“But obviously, his comments yesterday showed that maybe that wasn't the case.” 

A farmer works in Timoleague. Picture by: AG News / Alamy.

Mr Gorman added he worries that Irish society is increasingly divided and that urban people understand little about their rural neighbours. 

“I think the concern is that there is a narrative that when people are at their dinner parties in South Dublin and they're talking around the table, that it's a feeling that rural Ireland doesn't contribute,” he said. 

“And I mean, if you go back to when we had the financial crash in 2008, the two industries that kept the country on its knees or on its feet were agriculture and tourism.” 

A sheep farmer with flock on road in County Donegal. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Mr Gorman continued that this “disconnect” is particularly evident in the relationship between farmers and the Government. 

He noted the agricultural sector had to lobby hard to get the Taoiseach to oppose the EU’s trade deal with the Mercosur bloc, while arguing that their concerns over the price of fuel were initially ignored. 

“We warned the Government in talks on the 1st of April before the protest started, that if they didn't do something significant on it, that this would happen,” he said. 

“And to be clear, the interventions that they made at the cabinet meeting earlier on were completely insufficient to solve the problem.”

Main image: Leo Varadkar. Picture by: Alamy.com.