A group of 35 Galway farmers who have been unable to sell their cattle because of a clerical dispute at the Department of Agriculture yesterday occupied the lobby of the department's headquarters in Kildare Street, Dublin, for over six hours.
The group, led by Mr Michael Silke, the chairman of Co Galway's Irish Farmers' Association, demanded that promises made to them following a similar occupation of the Galway City offices last week be honoured.
The farmers, who have been unable to get permits to move stock from farms hit by bovine TB and brucellosis outbreaks, are being forced to feed and care for cattle which they should have been selling over the past two months.
The farmers feel they are needlessly caught up in a dispute between the Civil, Public and Services Union and the department over promotional opportunities in regional offices. Talks aimed at settling the dispute, soon to enter its eighth week, ended in deadlock on Tuesday, but will resume next Tuesday.
During the dispute, 250 staff from the department's offices in Castlebar, Tralee, Galway, Limerick and Clonakilty were sacked by management for failing to carry out instructions.
The farmers met senior officials from the department's human resources section who listed their complaints and said these would be passed to the union who had promised to deal with hardship cases individually.
Hardest hit of the Galway farmers is Mr John Dolan, from Loughrea, who is forced to keep animals which failed the Bovine TB test on his farm, raising the possibility they could spread the disease to the rest of his stock.
"I had the test carried out on March 24th and 14 animals went down. I still have those animals and I cannot move them or any of the others," he said.
The farmers said they were totally dissatisfied with the outcome of their discussions with department officials.