The Irish Farmers' Association is to take its income protest back on to the streets again but this time it will picket official functions being attended by five Government Ministers.
It has targeted the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh; the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Cullen; and the two Ministers of State at the Department of Agriculture, Mr Liam Aylward and Mr Noel Treacy. A surprising addition is the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Mr Tom Parlon, a former IFA president.
The decision was taken at a national executive meeting of the organisation in Dublin yesterday. Action is due to begin from Monday, February 17th.
A statement from IFA president Mr John Dillon said the action was being taken because of the €60 million in new cuts being imposed by Mr Walsh on farmers.
"The Government is showing total disregard for farmers and their income difficulties by imposing an additional round of cuts on meat-and-bone meal disposal and BSE testing, amounting to €50 million plus the €10 million increase in disease levies, which applied from January 1st.
"This latest announcement by the Minister for Agriculture amounts to a direct attack on the incomes of farm families at a time when farm incomes are already under very severe pressure."
Mr Dillon said that as a result of the Minister's latest decision, farmers selling cattle for slaughter would be hit with new costs and levies of €22 a head for animals under 30 months and €39 a head for certain animals over 30 months.
He expressed his outrage at this latest attack on farmers' incomes and said it was unacceptable that Mr Walsh had made no attempt to find obvious cost savings within his Department's own budget instead of penalising farmers.
Mr Dillon said there was no question that the IFA intended to intimidate the Ministers as all the protests would be perfectly legal.
"However, they were all party to Government decisions which are imposing additional charges on farmers at a time when we were being pushed out of the partnership talks," he said.