FARMERS WILL drive thousands of tractors through 29 towns and cities later today, to protest at Government cuts.
“We want to demonstrate the depth of our anger over the proposed Government cuts in the sector and the devastating impact collapsing farm income is having on farm families and the rural economy,” said a spokeswoman for the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA). “We do not want to disrupt any town and we have had a great measure of support from business people and those in the agribusiness sector in the country,” she said.
The IFA has arranged local protest “tractorcades” in the 29 county areas where it organises. Tractors will assemble outside the towns and drive slowly through the different centres. Traffic disruption is expected in some of the major towns and cities like Limerick, Kilkenny, Sligo, Ennis, Tralee, Carlow, Loughrea, Clonmel, Tullamore, Cavan, Monaghan and Swords in Dublin.
The spokeswoman said IFA was working closely with gardaí on the traffic management and most of the events would happen at around noon with farmers assembling at 11.30 at most of the sites with the exception of Portlaoise and Clonmel which start at 10.30am.
IFA president Pádraig Walshe, who will lead the protest in Portlaoise, said support for the action was further evidence of the anger of farmers who face into a winter of cash shortages while trying to provide for their families and keep their businesses afloat.
He said agriculture was vital to the rural economy of all counties and was the largest indigenous industry in the country, employing up to 300,000 in farming, food and related sectors. “The farming sector spends €4.5 billion supporting rural businesses and towns across the country. The attack on the rural economy through Government cutbacks and the McCarthy report will lead to the erosion of jobs, increased unemployment and an exodus from the countryside,” he said.
The largest turnouts are expected in Kilkenny, Carlow, Portlaoise and Cavan. The assembly point for the Portlaoise protest will be at the O’Moore Park GAA pitch and as in other protests, the tractors will be driven through the town centre.
The assembly point for Kilkenny will be at the new mart on the Dublin Road and the dispersal point will be at Upper John Street.
The tractors will converge on the Old Sligo road in Sligo, the GAA pitch in Carrick-on-Shannon and Battery Road, in Longford.
In Roscommon it will be Hyde Park, opposite Blackwater Motors in Fermoy, the GAA pitch in Bandon and at the Grasslands fertiliser plant on Dock Road in Limerick city.
In Ennis, Enniscorthy, Tralee, Loughrea, Dungarvan, Carrickmacross and Cavan, the tractors assemble at the local GAA clubs.
The Carlow assembly point is at the Dolmen hotel. The Naas assembly point is at the golf club. In Dundalk it is the racecourse, Grange Motors in Mullingar, Charleville in Tullamore and the Forest Little to Coachman’s roundabout in Swords, Dublin.