Demonstration may not be the last, Minister is warned

On the second day of the Mayo "tractorcade" yesterday, Mr Leo Moran, a farmer from Ballinrobe, warned that this week's IFA protest…

On the second day of the Mayo "tractorcade" yesterday, Mr Leo Moran, a farmer from Ballinrobe, warned that this week's IFA protest was just the first of what could be a protracted series of demonstrations.

Mr Moran, who was driving one of almost 100 tractors which had joined in the tractorcade through Mayo yesterday, said: "If Minister Walsh doesn't wake up and see that farming in Ireland is in crisis, we will have no choice but to take further action. We can't stick it any longer. In the last Budget, the levies on disease-testing were doubled. With farm incomes on the floor, this is another kick in the teeth to farmers."

Husband and wife John and Susan Farragher expressed similar views as the tractorcade was about to depart yesterday on the 40-mile journey from Ballinrobe to Castlerea in Co Roscommon.

Mr Farragher commented: "We're here for the sake of farm family incomes. I'm a dairy farmer. The price I'm getting for milk has dropped by 15 pence per gallon since last year. My monthly income is down €1,200 and I am at my limit just to survive. We'll do whatever it takes to get Minister Walsh to realise that something serious has to be done. As a farmer, I barely get my head above water when something else is thrown at me. I think we all feel the situation is now at a crisis point.

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"Minister Walsh should be fighting to have export refunds that were dropped a few months ago restored. Otherwise, the future is bleak for dairy farmers."

Ms Farragher agreed, saying: "If serious changes are not made, this country will end up like the USA, where there are no small farms. The big farmers have bought them all out and the farming sector is in the ownership of a few. If the present situation continues in Ireland, there will be no future for the young and the next generation on small farms."

The Ballinrobe contingent was joined by other farmers when the tractorcade passed through Hollymount, Ballyhaunis and Ballinlough on its way to Castlerea. The farmers bypassed the centre of Claremorris by using the new relief road on their journey into Ballyhaunis.

Motorists in east Mayo experienced some delays during the morning, but for the most part these were minimal.