Published: Wednesday, 16th September, 2009 8:00pm

Farmers protest aims to get Fianna Fáil thinking at think-in

IFA members from across the country converged on the Hodson Bay Hotel on Monday morning to ensure Fianna Fáil was thinking about agriculture at its annual think-in.

Farmers had gathered outside the hotel from early morning and security was tight, with two checkpoints before you got to the hotel and a strong Garda presence. There were uniformed gardai, plain clothes detectives, members of the public order unit and a private security company on hand to ensure the think-in could proceed without disturbance from the protesters.

But the farmers were there to make their point and wanted to ensure they would be heard and as the man who holds the public purse strings arrived the protest escalated. When Finance Minister Brian Lenihan pulled up at the hotel farmers began to break through the barriers and ran towards the hotel, taking everyone, even themselves, by surprise. But it was never going to be anything other than a peaceful protest and the Minister made it safely to the hotel, while the gardai quickly moved in to ensure the protestors were held back.

But the message from the IFA was clear on Monday - the farmers wanted to get the Government thinking about agriculture again.

Moore farmer Donal Greene, who is a member of South Roscommon IFA said: "We're here this morning to get a message through the Government, they haven't been listening for the last year. Farmers are beginning to sell their assets to cover the cost of living, it's gone beyond income."

"We want the Government to reverse the cuts and come up with a proper plan for agriculture for the future. Agricultural exports can rebuild this economy, but the Government has to have confidence in the industry," added Mr Moore.

He said the farmers felt they had no alternative but to protest as they had to get their message through.

"We have to come down here to their think-in to get them thinking because they don't seem to be thinking up to now about us," he said.

Patrick Whelan from Ballydangan said the biggest problem was the cutbacks to the REPS scheme and said there was a knock-on effect for the wider economy, with many people in sawmills, which produce stakes, unemployed already as a result of the cutbacks.

He said the farmers wanted the Government to reverse the cuts that had been made, especially on headage, and they also wanted them to bring back REPS 4.

"That's the main thing and if they don't bring back the suckler grant up to €80 again definitely people will get out of cows because they have to," he said.

Fine Gael Cllr John Naughten, who is also a farmer, said he came out to show his support for the farming community across the country, but especially in the west of Ireland.

"The cuts in REPS are going to have a huge impact, in western counties in particular, and especially in my own area of South Roscommon where most farmers are in the REPS scheme and it has been hugely successful, there have been huge environmental benefits for the rural areas and all people have to do is drive around South Roscommon to see the benefits of this scheme for themselves. It also generated income in the local economy and generated employment and all that's going to be cut back with the cutbacks in this scheme," said Cllr Naughten.

He said when the full cuts were implemented there would be a lot more job losses and farms would deteriorate as farmers would be unable to invest in their farms.

Cllr Naughten called on the Government to sit down and look at the proposals the IFA had put forward, which he said were very practical proposals and would outline where the savings could be made and still allow for the continuation of the scheme.