Nothing gets done by this government. Micheál Martin is incapable of making decisions and incapable of getting anything done unless he's being bounced around by somebody on social media.
How many animals do you have this year? Last year what did you have?
With 25 bulls, 20 females, 15 of which are in calf and five maiden heifers. I think there's a lot of demand out there, particularly for the pedigree Angus from Angus breeders but also from dairy breeders. The dairy men are having a beano with the beef calves. Two years ago we couldn't give them away, now they're selling them for between 500 and 700 euros ahead. So I think there will still be strong demand from the beef or from the dairy sector. And the advantage of ours obviously is you'd be breeding eating beef calves that qualify for the Certified Angus Beef program.
So long may it continue. But what am I expecting strong prices? I have no idea. I never know. It's been like a Ryanair seat sale. They're all getting sold without reserve, on you go.
What kind of numbers do you get on the day, people wise?
People wise, I mean generally speaking we tend to have about two, we're seating for 200 people. So we generally have about 250 people come judging by the number of seats we have. What's transformed the sale in the last 5 years or since COVID has been the online. The online is just fantastic. Martite do a great job, James Duff, John Tevlin who is the auctioneer. But you know the joy of for the first 15 years of these sales you'd be sitting there waiting 10 minutes for somebody to bid up another 10 euros. Now the internet just goes bing bing bing bing bing. So everybody has to get on with it. At last year's sale we had buyers and finished up buyers from obviously the four provinces but also from Scotland, Germany, Italy and Portugal. And so we're very hopeful that this year again we will have international buyers as well as Irish and UK buyers.
Have you bought any more land recently?
I bought another 90 acres last December. Some 90 acres came up for sale actually adjoining one of my farms. So I bought that and I'm doing what we do with all Westmeath land now. I have diggers in there deep digging out drains and getting the water off the bloody land. It is the bane of my life in Westmeath. You buy land and nobody has dug out or dressed the drains and the water for about the last 50 or 60 years. So we're in there at the moment with diggers digging out drains getting the water off the land again and fencing it all.
Mhm. And what are you doing with that? Is it for silage?
No, no, no, no. Because it joins one of my existing farms. So, we'll use that for kind of grazing, summer grazing. And then it is it's reasonably close to I built two new big large stock sheds. Each of them capable of wintering about 220, 250 animals. And but this 90 acres is right beside one of those new sheds. So, we'll use it during the winter. And we kind of let the calves kind of graze out by day and in at night. So we kind of run a calf creep system. The cows are kept in and the calves can go out and sort of play in the fields during the day. So once I get the if I can drain the land of the water and get the water off the land, I'll have reasonably dry land for the cows kind of out by day and in by night.
One of the big things of late, well quite recently was farmer sensitivity around beef imports. And the IFA protest outside Bord Bia. Do you think farmers were a little bit oversensitive or should they be concerned about imports or where did you stand on that?
I think I mean I'm generally supportive of the IFA but I think they were fundamentally wrong on their opposition to the Mercosur trade deal. Which is ultimately free trade has hugely benefited Ireland. Joining the EU has hugely benefited and every time there's been an extension of free trade deals the IFA are jumping up and down about it. The Mercosur is a good trade deal, free trade deal opens up a huge market for the Irish and the European economy. There are very heavy restrictions on the amount of Brazilian beef that can be brought into Europe. It is tiny, it is a drop in the ocean. It will not have any effect on the pricing of Irish beef and the IFA were fundamentally wrong to be opposing it. And I thought the charade of them camping out in the Bord Bia offices was a joke. They should have been arrested and thrown out. I mean, you're all in favor of peaceful protest, but you want a peaceful protest outside with placards, not sitting inside the reception area. I wouldn't encourage that or I wouldn't support that at all. I think the IFA were wrong in both the opposition to Mercosur and in the case of Bord Bia.
You went to Cheltenham. There wasn't a particularly successful trip.
You know, we didn't have any winners. But that's a kind of a high setting a high bar. We had I think two seconds and three thirds. So I won about 200 grand in prize money. At least it paid for the entire week. Didn't have any winners. But you know I am paying the penalty now for not taking a break from buying horses for about four or five years. I didn't buy anything through 19, 20, 21, 22 and then I changed my mind in 23 and started buying again. So I now have young horses coming through but I only have really hurdlers. I don't have novice chasers or chasers. So it'll take me about another 3 years when I have novice chasers and chasers the older horses.
So you're not getting out.
No, but I have significantly reduced the numbers. Like when I stopped by when I said I was going to wind down in 2018, 2019, I had about 200 horses in training. I'm now down to about 80 horses in training and I think that number is about right. I was and I have very little time to go racing at the moment. So I'm busy with the kids' activities. They particularly like going to Leopardstown at Christmas, Cheltenham and the Punchestown Festival. So, because they're keen to go racing, I said, 'Well, let's go back and buy a few more.'
But it hasn't changed, has it? Your perspective of what success looks like when it comes to the jumps game.
Success in jumps racing is very hard and very elusive. JP McManus has the right idea, and that is to have big numbers and throw big numbers at it, and he wins by far and away the most races in the country. But I no longer want to compete with JP. I'm happy now to have a smaller number of horses in training. I think that number is and I only have them with two trainers, Willie and Gordon. I can kind of manage those smaller numbers now. It had got too big and you're trying to manage 220 horses in training. It's too much distraction and I don't need those kind of distractions anymore. I'm busy enough at the airline and my beef farming and my Angus sale.
Mhm. You've been quite critical, scathing I think, of the government of late, Micheál Martin. I mean, for a do-nothing government led by a do-nothing Taoiseach. Why are you so critical of them?
Well, I mean, the latest example would be they got elected in November of 2024, published a program for government in January 25 where they promised to abolish the Dublin airport cap as soon as possible. And 16 months later, absolutely nothing done. You know, it is government by social media. So, if there's a big controversy over what the hell did you call scooters about two weeks ago with that tragedy in Finland where the young girl was knocked down, but because it burns up all over social media, the government is jumping up and down. 'Oh, we have to pass legislation dealing with scooters.' Why don't you deal with some of the fundamental problems here like, you know, infrastructure, which is abysmal. You promise to abolish the cap on Dublin airport which is holding back the growth of Irish aviation and tourism. 16 months later you've done nothing. Legislation can happen overnight if you have a 20 seat majority, you run the government. But then Micheál Martin would ought to wander around Bertie like getting his photograph taken. I mean the last time we were he was down opening up the arrivals terminal at Kerry airport. What's the Taoiseach doing down in Kerry airport? Why isn't he up here in Dublin driving forward the agenda for change.
The cap then on passenger numbers, where is it at?
So the cap is 32 million. And remember this was set in 2007 because they were worried about road traffic. Now what road traffic has to do with airport numbers is a mystery to almost every airline operating at Dublin airport. But nevertheless, the road infrastructure has dramatically improved in the last 20 years. They got planning permission for a second runway. And it shows why Fingal is not, you know, is inadequate. Fingal County Council is not fit for presiding over national infrastructure. When the second terminal was open in 2007 they put a limit of 32 million passengers but then they approved a second runway in 2016 which took capacity from 30 million to 60 million passengers but forgot to unwind the 2007 road traffic broken nonsense. And if we had a proper functioning government that was actually capable of doing something, when they say with a 20 seat majority in January 25 that they will abolish the cap as soon as possible, okay, it might have been done by the end of January, but it should have been done by March or April or by the summer recess of 2025. Nothing gets done by this government. Micheál Martin is incapable of making decisions and incapable of getting anything done unless he's being bounced around by somebody on social media. If they don't pass this legislation before the end of June and they then take on the EU presidency and none of them, most notably Micheál Martin, will do nothing for the following six months because they'll be too busy wining and dining the great and the good of Europe. If it's not done by June, it won't get done at all this year. I think if it doesn't get done by the end of June, I think the Americans are going to stop Aer Lingus landing in New York or landing in the US altogether. The Trump administration is not going to tolerate the American airlines being disadvantaged like this. And if they stopped the Aer Lingus flights landing in New York, this legislation would get passed in 24 hours because now it would be an emergency. And that might be the only way of getting this thing fixed. I mean, the only people who have real traction in this argument now is the Americans. And the government is scared that the Americans actually will stop Aer Lingus flights landing in the US and then it'll get done in 24 hours. Like the idea that we can't pass legislation in 24 hours is a nonsense. If you have a 20 seat majority, they never listen to me. What's complex? You want to pass a law and you have 20 seat majority. There's nothing complex about it at all. You ram it through government and off you go. We're still waiting 16 months. It took them until September 2025 to bring a paper to cabinet. The cabinet approved the paper. Now they're bringing draft legislation in April, March of 26. That took another 6 months. And now it might take us until the end of the year to get it passed. Well, nothing will get passed in the second half of this year because they'll do nothing for the second half of this year because the EU presidency. Martin will be wandering around Europe, you know, international statesman. Whereas in fact he's an ineffectual, he has no leadership skills at all. He's a great survivor. You know, he was there driving the bus when Brian Cowen drove the economy off the cliff in 2008. And remarkably 20 years there he's still in power hanging on by the skin of his teeth because there's nobody in Fianna Fáil to push him out. I don't have any great personal kind of antagonism towards Micheál Martin. Where I criticize him is utter and abject failure and Simon Harris right up there as well to deliver real change. I mean and how many scandals do you want? We haven't got the cap at Dublin airport abolished. The children's hospital is running five times over. Was originally going to be 400 million is now 2.2 billion. It still isn't getting opened. Nothing they touch. We want to build 30,000, 40,000 houses a year, but they're all being built outside the M50. What is the proposal for fixing infrastructure or traffic? Public transport doesn't serve Kildare, Meath where they're building all these houses. But as usual, nothing gets done.
But if this government is so useless, like are there alternatives or realistic alternatives?
