The annual all Ireland final of the FRS Farm Relief Services Memorial Scholarship took place on February 19th in Mountbellew Agricultural College, Co. Galway and was held as part of the Agricultural Colleges Challenge Day. Eoin Commins who represented Kildalton College was the overall winner of 2020.
Eoin who is from Westmeath is currently studying in Kildalton College. Eoin focused his presentation on water quality, talking about the importance of careful pesticide and slurry use to reduce the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the water. As the overall winner Eoin will now be offered the opportunity to take up a paid placement with FRS for three months to gain experience in the business.
The scholarship itself is run in conjunction with Macra na Feirme and a winner is selected to represent each Teagasc College as a National finalist. This year marked the 12th year in it’s running. The scholarship rewards students who show outstanding leadership ability. Each presenter was asked to deliver a presentation on ‘Achievable Sustainable Practices in my Industry’.
Peter Byrne, FRS Network, CEO said; “I was very impressed by the excellent presentations and the communication skills of the students who took part. The topic was “Achievable Sustainable Practices in my Industry” and we had 5 speakers each representing their Agricultural College as part of the overall challenge day. FRS are delighted to be involved and to give the winning student, Eoin Commins, from Westmeath, representing Kildalton Agricultural College, the opportunity to gain work experience with FRS. This year Eoin will be looked after by our office in Ballyjamesduff in Cavan. Macra, Teagasc and FRS have a long tradition of working together and I congratulate everyone involved in organising the challenge day.”
The other candidates on the day included Oisín Brady who represented Ballyhaise Agricultural College, Eoin Herlihy who represented Salesian Agricultural College Pallaskenry, Matthew Kealy who represented Gurteen College and finally Liam McCann who represented the Mountbellew Agricultural College.