Picketing hill farmers threaten to ‘step up’ campaign

MAKING A STAND?Hill farmers picketing outside Enda Kenny’s Constituency Office in Castlebar last Wednesday.

Picketing hill farmers threaten to ‘step up’ campaign


Anton McNulty

Picketing hill farmers say they are prepared to ‘step up’ their campaign against the introduction of collective agreement for the management of commonages if progress is not made on the issue in the coming weeks.
Hill farmers from across the west began their daily picket of Enda Kenny’s constituency office last Wednesday morning and say they will continue their protest until the collective agreement criteria for joining the new GLAS scheme is removed.
A group of nearly 30 hill farmers and supporters attended the first day of the picket on Tucker Street in Castlebar, where a letter outlining farmers’ concerns was delivered to the Taoiseach’s Parliamentary assistant, Ger Deere.
John Moran, a hill farmer from the Nephin Range who handed in the letter, told The Mayo News that if collective agreement was allowed to take place it would be an end to hill farming in Ireland. He said they were hopeful the issues will be resolved but added if they were not they were not afraid to ‘step up’ their campaign if needs be.
“We are very disappointed at this stage [that the matter has not been resolved],” he said, adding that he believes Enda Kenny has the power to prevent the introduction of collective agreement. “We’ll be here every day until it is resolved, and hopefully we will not have to move it up a step. But we are prepared to step it up if we have to,” he said.
When asked what they meant by stepping it up, Mr Moran said he would leave that ‘to one’s imagination’.

Different group
The picket was organised by the Concerned Hill Farmer Action Group with the majority of the farmers on the first day coming from Cushlough, south of Westport. This group is not to be confused with the Farm Family Rights Group, which was involved in an incident whereby two rams were removed from Enda Kenny’s Catlebar office on Monday, September 1.
The Concerned Hill Farmer Action Group has arranged for farmers from different areas to man the pickets outside Enda Kenny’s office on different days. Farmers from Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal have agreed to take part.
Mr Moran said the farmers involved were ‘very determined’, and he called on people from farming communities around Castlebar to join them in the picket.
“We have a rota of 26 captains, and each captain has a team of 20 to 30 men, and they all have a slot to take part in the picket. Everyone is determined and everyone is willing to do it. We welcome all the support we can get, especially from the spouses and partners of hill farmers who may be in Castlebar. We would ask them to call and stand with us for five or ten minutes and show support,” he said.
There were four Gardaí present on Tucker Street during the protest, but Brendan Joyce of the Concerned Hill Farmer Action Group stressed that the picket would be peaceful.
He explained that the collective agreement criteria for access to GLAS was ‘totally unacceptable’ and discriminated against commonage farmers. He called on the Minister for Agriculture to scrap collective agreement and replace it with a minimum stocking rate which farmers would accept.