2 October 2023
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
The IFA Presidential election debates will begin today and run until Mon, Oct 30th. In all, there will be 16 debates that cover each of the 29 IFA County Executives.
The County Executives of West Cork and Cork Central have the honour of hosting the first debate between candidates running for President and Deputy President in Macroom, Co Cork and Donegal will close the series at the end of October.
Francie Gorman from Laois and Martin Stapleton from Limerick are running to be the 17th President of IFA.
Two candidates will contest the Deputy Presidency of IFA. They are Alice Doyle from Wexford and Pat Murphy from Galway.
IFA National Returning Officer Brian Rushe encouraged members, farmers and those in the sector to attend a debate during October to hear from the candidates. “This will provide the members with an opportunity to assess the two candidates before they decide who to vote for,” he said.
“All our Branch Officers, County Officers and National Officers are elected by farmers. The President and Deputy President of IFA are elected directly by members. They are truly representative of farmers and they carry a genuine mandate once elected,” he said.
Debates for the regional chairs will also take place in October, with voting on the night of each debate.
For the first time, members will receive their vote in the post and they can either return the vote by post or cast their vote at their branch AGM.
The Election Count will take place on Dec 12th.
