IFA Chief Executive Damien McDonald has advised IFA County Executive members of the review and pointed out that an update of the structures within the association is overdue since the last reform was completed in 2003.

He added there has been considerable change in IFA and farmer involvement since then.

It is anticipated that the findings could require a major reform of the legal structure of the association in the interest of ensuring full protection for officers.

A senior officer said: “Everything has changed a lot over the last 20 years. There are fewer farmers. IFA has become even more involved in the representation of farmers’ interests and the officers of the association are now putting themselves at considerably more risk working for farmers in a more litigation-conscious environment.”

National Council members have received a briefing from a representative of the National Institute of Directors on the possible legal implications for senior officers of the association engaging in IFA work and activities, including public protests.

​It has been explained to them that IFA is currently an association of members, while IBEC is registered as a limited company.

As an association of members, IFA cannot be sued because it is not a legal body, but that does not provide any protection for individual members that protest or cause an obstruction, as part of their IFA involvement, from being personally sued.

Nevertheless, being an association of members does not protect the IFA against a high court judge granting an injunction against the IFA, similar to what happened during the IFA beef protest, which cost the organisation around €500,000 at the time.

There has also been one situation in the past when legal action was taken against two of the most senior national officers of the IFA involved in a blockade.

It has been pointed out to the association that individual members of the IFA are not protected against a corporate body suing them personally in pursuit of recovery of damages allegedly resulting from their participation in an activity.

“A few individual farmers, of considerable asset worth, could be singled out and personally sued. It is a very litigation-conscious society,” one officer pointed out.

Some representative bodies in the country have decided to register as a limited company, but this move could have major implications for the operational structure of the IFA if it chose to go down this route.

Having the IFA controlled as a limited company with a board of directors could also cause complications for the authority of the national council and a range of national commodity committees.

Under the 2003 reform, the county chairpersons became members of the National Council as their county representative for the first time and limited basic remuneration for the increased time and workload involved was introduced to help defray the cost of replacement labour on their farms.

There were also some structural changes in the representative structure and election processes introduced at that time.

The overall structure of the IFA is understood to be under the microscope in the current review process.