Farmers will take to the streets again in protest tomorrow (Wednesday, May 1).
They’ll travel from across the country to Cork where Cabinet meets from 8am.
James Murphy is Kilkenny IFA County Chairman & has been telling KCLR News “Our members have been saying to us, particularly the Winter finishers, enough is enough, they’ve lost significant amounts of money finishing cattle this year many saying that they’re finished, they won’t continue in this business”
He adds “We’re being promised by Government & by some of our colleagues and friends in Brussels that farmers will be looked after, that there are measures in place to ensure that farmers aren’t out of pocket & these will kick in in the event of a hard Brexit, unfortuately for this particular sub set of farmers, these finishers, they’re already experiencing a hard Brexit, they’re loosing their shirts, they’re being put out of business”.
Mr Murphy outlined “So these farmers from across the country will be in Cork in very large numbers to say enough is enough to say it’s time now to back us and to support us & we’re calling on the Government & Brussels to come up with a compensation package retrospectively for these finishers who’ve lost significant amounts of money and by IFA estimations there have been losses of in excess of 100 million incurred by finishers since last September”.
He has this call for fellow farmers “We’re encouraging any beef farmers who’d like to come & get on some of the buses coming down, ring your branch chairman and tell them you would like to go and who should you contact, we need numbers, we need to throw down a very strong message so this is as much an appeal for farmers who have in many cases been expressing a huge sense of helplessness about prices & the markets”.
In conclusion Mr Murphy states “This is an opportunity to take a little bit of control back so what we’re sayin is we need farmers to come out, raise their voices, be heard & join IFA in calling for this compensation package that’s so badly needed for this particular sector”.
