Mayo IFA Chair says farmers 'waiting for the call' to protest

MAYO IFA Chairman Jarlath Walsh said that farmers who attended the tractor protest in Castlebar on Thursday evening were 'just waiting for the call' due to dissatisfaction in the way they are being treated.

A large number of farmers from all over Mayo attended the tractor protest which was one of a series of demonstrations organised across Ireland by the IFA in solidarity with European farmers protesting against the EU-Mercosur trade deal.

Mayo IFA Chairman Jarlath Walsh told The Mayo News that farmers from every branch in Mayo attended the demo, such is the anger amongst them.

“There was a great turnout at short notice and you might say the farmers were waiting for the call,” he said. “It shows the feeling among the farmers that they are not getting a square deal and it has been building up for a long time.”

The Mayo farmers gathered at the car park at MacHale Park and following speeches from Mr Walshe and Brendan Golden, Chairman of Connacht IFA, they drove their tractors in a convoy around the county town. Mr Walshe said the convoy took five minutes for the last tractor to leave MacHale Park.

Farmers gathered at the MacHale Park carpark in Castlebar before the start of the tractor protest

Mr Walsh explained that environmental schemes like Acres are not workable at farm level and this is frustrating farmers.

“Every scheme that comes out is more complicated than the other and then the payments didn't come so enough is enough. We need to be consulted on the design of the scheme instead of farmers having to come along and fix them afterwards. They design the scheme sitting on the desk while we look at it from the point of view of working at farm level. If they gave us the right consultation beforehand we would get schemes which will be workable at farm levels,” he said.

EU-Mercosur trade deal

Farmers across Europe have been protesting in recent weeks against the proposed EU trade deal struck with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay in 2019, which aims to streamline the multi-billion trading relationship between the EU and the Mercosur countries.

If this trade deal comes into effect it would lift duties on products between the two regions and would see cheaper beef, poultry and pork imported into Europe from South America.

Mr Walsh said there is a lot of anger among farmers that they are being asked to produce food in an environmentally friendly way and yet cheap food will be imported from countries which don't have the same restrictions.

“On top of it all the Mercosur deal will hammer everything. After we go to all this to produce environmentally friendly food what do they do? They do a deal for food which is not at the same standard and not as traceable. What is the point of it all?

“The environmental schemes have the same budget as they had 20 years ago and we are asked to do way more with the same budget with no allowance for inflation. What other sector would deal with a budget drawn up 20 years ago and asked to do all the new environmental measures for the same money and less,” he added.

The new President of the IFA, Francie Gorman is due to meet the Taoiseach and the Minister for Agriculture in the next few weeks and Mr Walsh said any future demonstrations will depend on how those talks go.

“The best way forward is meaningful negotiation but farmers are frustrated and Francie [Gorman] knows that now from these protests,” he added.