‘For the average beef farmer there just is not a living in it’

As farmers’ tractors lined Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green, causing severe traffic delays, we asked some of the protestors why they’ve brought their campaign to the capital.

Tom Walsh, south Tipperary (farmer)

“I’m here trying to get a better deal for rural Ireland. Beef production is vital to our economy.

“Beef has recovered all over Europe and in England and there’s a major divide now between the price in those markets compared to what we’re receiving here.

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“Then you have the injunctions – it was agreed at the talks they would be lifted and they’re not lifted.

“For the average beef farmer at the moment there just is not a living in it, most farmers are forced to work off the land to keep a living in it. That’s how tough it is.

“We’ve been surprised how well received the demonstration has been.”

Edward Hughes, Co Monaghan (farmer)

“We’re here today to look for better beef prices and to get the court injunctions lifted.

“The small farmer in Ireland is gone, beef is down €1.50 a kilo from two years ago. There’s no profit for the small farmer at all.

“If nothing is done the small farmer will be done because there’s nothing to keep him in it. That’s the reality of it.

“I’ll stay here for as long as needs be.”

Elizabeth Fleming, Co Cavan (farmer)

“Everything is deteriorating in farming. Down the line the Mercosur deal is sneakily trying to be passed in Europe and that will finish us.

“They want us to get rid of the livestock and get the beef from Brazil, for us not to produce it and plant trees. We’ve put too much into our farms, have them handed down generation after generation.

“There’s also the carbon tax which has been planted on us just like with the slash of a pen which is ridiculous. It’s the farmers that will pay for the carbon tax and it’s going to go up every year.

“The countryside is just being wrecked, they don’t seem to care as long as they keep us down in the countryside.”

Lester Gordon, Co Westmeath (former farmer)

“I’m here to back my fellow farmers. In England the price of beef is about €4.08 per kilo, here it’s €3.60. Why aren’t they getting the same prices?

“It’s making fish of one and flesh of another. There has to be fairness and that’s why I’m here to back the men and women today and if it takes another week or until Christmas, I would stay here. We are being annihilated.”