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Dublin city center has been brought to a standstill as hundreds of farmers took part in a protest over beef prices.<\/p>\nDublin city center has been brought to a standstill as hundreds of farmers took part in a protest over beef prices.<\/p>\n
The \u201ctractorcade\u201d protest made its way into Dublin on Wednesday afternoon in a bid to highlight low prices for beef farmers.<\/p>\n
The planned demonstration caused a number of road closures, including St Stephen\u2019s Green, Kildare Street, Merrion Square and Molesworth Street.<\/p>\n
The demonstration is expected to last 24 hours.<\/p>\n
The Individual Farmers of Ireland, which organised the protest, have called for farmers to get a better beef price.<\/p>\n
Kevin Murphy, a 24-year-old beef farmer from Wexford, said: \u201cThere are a number of issues \u2013 the main issue being the beef price that we are producing is below cost price.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other issue is the carbon tax that the Government want to bring in. If that comes in the way the blue shirts want it to, it doesn\u2019t make any odds what price the beef is, it will be game over for the farmers\u2019 community with the price of green diesel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a full-time farmer like my father, but the way things are going there won\u2019t be a future in farming. It will be an expensive hobby.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my father\u2019s farm that I want to take over and it\u2019s been going on for generations.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to tell the (Agricultural) Minister (Michael Creed) to stop bending over to the EU and be a voice for Ireland, stop doing everything you are told and be a voice for the people you are representing and not the big businessmen.<\/p>\n
\u201cFarming will die out slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand why they are targeting farmers when there\u2019s 2,200 planes flying through Ireland\u2019s airspace and they are worried about a few cows farting in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Christopher Duffy, from Co Meath, accused gardai of splitting the protest up as a number of farmers in tractors were prevented from accessing St Stephen\u2019s Green from the Merrion Square area.<\/p>\n
Mr Duffy said: \u201cWe had an arrangement made with the gardai that we would come in and do a protest today.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could have come in and done this under the cover of darkness.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are after dividing us up now \u2013 they are trying to divide and concur. Half of our protest is stuck beside Merrion Square held back by steel fences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are being boxed in like sheep waiting to be sheered.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did you ever see a protest split up in two? We want to be together. They are holding us prisoner in one spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Farmers say they are worried about the lack of talks by the Beef Task Force.<\/p>\n
They also want higher prices from beef processors.<\/p>\n
Peadar Toibin, leader of Aontu, addressed the farmers saying it was a \u201cdisgrace\u201d that Government was allowing farmers to bring their beef to the process gates for below price.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI attended the agricultural committee a few weeks ago and I told the chair of the agricultural committee (Pat Deering), who is senior Fine Gael TD, that farmers should get a price above the cost of production and that TD said it was an unreasonable demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one rule for the establishment in Leinster House and it\u2019s another rule for the rest of the people in Ireland. This government have M50 vision, they can\u2019t see beyond the M50.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way you can crow-bar the issues of rural Ireland back into the political debate is to keep doing what you are doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeep protesting and expose the injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n