A protest by Irish cattle dealers which disrupted cattle sales in marts across the State yesterday will continue today, a spokesman for the Livestock Producers' and Suppliers' Association said yesterday.
Mr Stephen Foley said sales at the marts had been badly hit, and in many instances farmers were forced to bring their stock home.
Mr Foley said this had happened at Castleisland and Kilmallock, and his members, who are protesting over the new rules which oblige them to keep an animal for 30 days between mart purchase and the next sale, were forced to continue their action.
"We will continue to withhold our services from marts and will review the situation at the meeting on Saturday.
"We will go out of business if we are forced to operate under this rule, so we have no option," he said.
Mr Lar Carroll, chairman of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society, which operates two-thirds of the marts in the State, said it favoured the stance of the dealers and exporters, but felt the dealers should not have taken their action against its members.
He said all marts had continued to operate yesterday, but had experienced reductions of 20-25 per cent in the number of cattle presented for sale.
Mr Carroll called on the dealers, now that they had made their point, to suspend their action and said there should be negotiations to find a solution.
The IFA president, Mr John Dillon, called on the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, to intervene immediately and review the 30-day livestock movement restriction in order to avoid disruption in the livestock trade.
Mr Dillon called for an immediate meeting with Mr Walsh to resolve the issue.
However, the dealers' action has split the farm organisations, with the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association supporting the 30-day regulation while stressing that it acknowledged the important role played by registered dealers.
The Department repeated yesterday that the 30-day rule had to be retained to slow down the movement of animals in order to stop the spread of animal disease.