This page contains a set of links to information sources and papers mainly on the web, with a particular focus on future scenarios and challenges facing the Irish agri-food sector
Prepared by Alan Matthews (Trinity College Dublin)
Last updated: 9 February 2007
The Irish Department of Agriculture and Food website (and especially its section Publications) is a primary source. See, in particular, the Department's Annual Report as well as the Annual Review and Outlook (previous years are also available). It also produces a very useful Compendium of Agricultural Statistics updated every two years containing Excel files of the main agricultural statistics, in many cases going back to 1973.
Teagasc is the state-funded Irish Agricultural and Food Development Authority. Its Rural Economy Research Centre provides analyses of economic and social trends in Irish farming and rural development, and publishes a working paper series. The Centre also produces the annual National Farm Survey which provides the Irish input into the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN).
See also my lecture notes for a course on the Economics of Food Markets which provide background information on EU and Irish agricultural policy.
For a recent review of policy issues in Irish agriculture, see Report of the Agri-Vision 2015 Committee, 2004, Department of Agriculture and Food. The Department of Agriculture and Food subsequently published an Agrivision 2015 Action Plan in 2006 setting out its proposals on implementation. A number of research institutes, including NUI Maynooth, UCD and Teagasc, produced a Rural Ireland 2005 Foresight Perspectives report in 2005 which contains both a synthesis report and a number of background papers on likely trends to 2025 in the Irish agri-food sector. A recent Teagasc working paper provides a critical review of the recent productivity performance of Irish agriculture.
Dixon, J.and Matthews, A. 2006, Impact of the 2003 Mid-Term Review of the Common Agricultural Policy, ESRI Quarterly Economic Commentary Spring 2006, pp. 36-53.
FAPRI Ireland, 2006, World Agricultural Trade Reform and the WTO Doha Development Round: Analysis of the Impact on EU and Irish Agriculture, Teagasc.
Hennessy, T., 2004, Farm Level Adjustment in Ireland Following Decoupling, Paper to the Agricultural Economics Society Conference, 2004.
Decoupling Implementation in Ireland. See Department of Agriculture and Food Agri Payments web page.
FAPRI-Ireland partnership, 2003, The Luxembourg CAP Reform Agreement: Analysis of the Impact on EU and Irish Agriculture, Teagasc Rural Economy Research Centre. There is an executive summary. Another summary can be found here. The conclusions were also presented at a meeting of the American Agricultural Economics Association under the title 'CAP Reform and the WTO: Potential Impacts on EU Agriculture' in 2004.
T. Hennessy and T. Rehman, 2006, Modelling the Impact of Decoupling on Structural Change in the Farming Sector: integrating econometric and optimisation models, Working Paper 06/01, Teagasc.
S. Shrestha, T. Hennessy and S. Hynes, The Effect of Decoupling on Farming in Ireland: A Regional Analysis, Working Paper 06/11, Teagasc.
Other relevant Teagasc working papers quantifying the impact of decoupling on Irish agriculture can be downloaded from the RERC working paper website.
The Department of Agriculture and Food is currently preparing its CAP Rural Development Plan setting out the Irish strategy for rural development in the 2007-2013 period and which will be submitted to the EU for funding under the CAP Pillar 2. The Department's CAP Rural Development web page gives the details. The draft strategy is available for consultation since November 2006, as is the more detailed proposed rural development programme which sets out the measures proposed in the format required under EU legislation. There is also a link to an ex ante evaluation of the rural development programme undertaken by AFCon Management Consultants and Jim Dorgan Associates.
For discussion of agriculture's impact on the environment, consult Environment Protection Agency, 2004, Agriculture and Forestry, Chapter 7 in Ireland's Environment 2004: The State of the Environment, Wexford. (also the Chapter 4 on water quality).
Carroll, D., 2004, Implementation of Government's Rural Development Policy, Paper to the Teagasc Rural Development Conference 2004.
Crowley, C., Meredith, D. and Walsh, J. Population And Agricultural Change In Rural Ireland, 1991 To 2002, Paper to the Teagasc Rural Development Conference 2004.
Alan Matthews, Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Safety, Chapter 9 in O'Hagan, John and Newman, Carol, The Economy of Ireland: National & Sectoral Policy Issues, 9th Edition, Dublin, Gill and Macmillan, 2005, pp. 215-242.
Matthews, A., 2001, How important is agriculture and the agri-food sector in Ireland? Irish Banking Review, Winter 2001, pp. 28-40.
For bibliography and Irish government publications. See list in the Bibliography in Daly 2002 below
Turner, M. 1996, After the Famine: Irish Agriculture 1850-1914, Cambridge.
Bailie, I. and Sheehy, S., 1971, Irish agriculture in a changing world.
Gillmor D., 1977, Agriculture in the Republic of Ireland
Drudy, P.J. 1982 Ireland: land, politics and people. Cambridge University Press.
Kennendy, K., Giblin, T. and McHugh, D., The economic development of Ireland in the Twentieth Century.
Crotty, R., 1966, Irish Agricultural Production: Its Volume and Structure, Cork University Press.
Rouse, Paul, 2000, Ireland's Own Soil: Government and Agriculture in Ireland, 1945 to 1965, Dublin, Irish Farmers' Journal
Daly, M. 2002, The First Department: A History of the Department of Agriculture, Dublin, Institute of Public Administration.
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