THOUSANDS OF farmers are expected to protest in Dublin today to highlight what the Irish Farmers’ Association claims is failed legislation which is allowing the powerful grocery multiple trade to “fleece farmers to bolster their profits”.
The protest from noon at Merrion Square before a march on the offices of Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton, is a response to the raid on IFA head office by the Competition Authority a fortnight ago.
The raid, involving questioning of senior IFA officials and the seizure of files and computers from the organisation’s office, angered the IFA. The authority confirmed it was inquiring into alleged price-fixing of milk by farmers.
“The recent actions by the Competition Authority are protecting greedy retailers and criminalising farmers. Immediate reform is needed to secure fair play in the food supply chain,” IFA president John Bryan said yesterday.
The IFA alleged Mr Bruton had failed to meet it over a two-month period on the issues, and called on him to prioritise promised legislation to tackle inequality in the food supply chain.
A statement from the Minister’s office said he denied he had refused to meet the IFA. It said the Competition Authority was “an independent statutory agency with responsibility for enforcing competition law for the benefit of consumers. It would not be appropriate for the Minister to discuss an ongoing Competition Authority investigation with any party to that investigation, and the Minister said this to the IFA when they requested a meeting on this issue.”
It added the Minister last week received the report of consultant John Travers – appointed last year as facilitator in the development of a voluntary code of practice for the grocery goods sector – and now wished to consider the issues and would meet Mr Travers today.
“The Minister intends to contact the IFA shortly to arrange a meeting on this issue, as he said to the IFA in correspondence earlier this month,” it said.