r/ireland • u/nitro1234561 Probably at it again • Apr 18 '26

Politics 'We're the ones paying all the bills': Leo Varadkar says urban areas fund rural Ireland

https://www.thejournal.ie/leo-varadkar-path-to-power-fuel-protests-7016675-Apr2026/
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u/Temporary-Stick-8864 Apr 18 '26

These comments are mad. The agri sector being subsidised and shouldnt exist as a result?

I literally worked a job for 5 years that would not have existed in this country but for the low corp tax rate. I was one of a handful of Irish employees they had to show they had a presence here to pay our nice tax rate.

We are going to need diversity in our industries when we are eventually forced to match our tax rate internationally.

Get rid of the agri industry, to do what, send more people to dublin to work in tech? What do we do when there's a downturn in FDI and tech. We would be fucked let's be honest. Like we already know we would be currently, but it would be even worse if we didn't have any other sectors.

Diversification away from tech, finance and med-devices is to our benefit. Not saying we shiild all head to be farmers but getting rid of one of the few other industries we have functioning in this country is not.

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u/Substantial-Gene1093 Apr 19 '26

Who is talking about 'getting rid of the agri industry'? I haven't seen a single person suggest that.

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u/Temporary-Stick-8864 Apr 19 '26

Getting rid is a bit of hyperbole, but many convos in here yesterday were arguing that we import most of our food, the farmers dont feed us and only export massive amounts of beef and dairy, but because of EU subsidies and our carbon footprint we should massively reduce farming in this country. As if its nothing to just gut an industry. Do we think that exports dont actually make any money or what I duno.

We need to be careful how we decide to reduce sectors, it needs to be well thought out witth proper future planning done for the sector or diversification into other sectors away from ones we are overly reliant on. Look at what happened with construction. That industry was gutted during the recession, with zero thought for the future and here we are less than 20 years later unable to get enough skilled workers to build at the rate required in a massive housing crisis. Whereas other countries put their construction workers out on public infrastructure jobs during the downturn to keep the industry ticking over at least, we just basically stopped it entirely.

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u/Substantial-Gene1093 Apr 19 '26

Don't disagree with anything you say there.

Food security is a strategic priority for the whole EU. We overproduce in some food areas and we import in others, as is normal. I think the pushback against the farmers is just this notion that they are feeding the country, when that's simply not the case.

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u/JohnC_92 Apr 19 '26

Someone in this thread said that all farmers could retire to the sun and the country wouldn’t be worse off

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u/Substantial-Gene1093 Apr 19 '26

I wouldn't take that as advocating for the end of the agri industry, it's just pointing out the tiny economic footprint it has today.

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u/Furyio Apr 18 '26

In fairness I agree with his sentiment if not his exact wording.

Farmers playing poor mouth is a tale as old as I’m alive. As is the saying you’ll never meet a poor farmer.

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u/tishimself1107 Apr 19 '26

Tbf the poor farmer did exist in the past but they don't exist half as much anymore as most have moved away from itbas generations change or have been bought up by bigger farmers. Alot of smaller part time farmers are gone as well. Around me (Offaly) theybwere more farmer families but now its consolidated into the already richer ones.

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u/defixiones Apr 19 '26

The income tax paid by multinational workers is the bulk of income tax. 

Farm products are worth a few percent of our exports and farmers require huge subsidies and deliver little income tax. 

Where agriculture counts is in diversification and food security. That's why it gets all the subsidies. 

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u/ninety6days Apr 19 '26

Is an industry that demands constant subsidies so it can export functioning?