Farmers staged a protest over tillage concerns and what was described as scheme and payment “bureaucracy” outside Kildare County Council’s (KCC) headquarters in Athy, Co. Kildare.
The protest held yesterday (Monday, February 26) formed part of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) campaign, and was planned around the Fine Gael Agriculture and Rural Affairs meeting.
IFA chair for Kildare, Thomas O’Connor told Agriland that there was a “big turnout” with many tractors.
Over 30 farmers gathered, along with a number of local councillors.
Protestors from Kildare, West Wicklow and Carlow were addressed by Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon and Fine Gael MEP Colm Markey.
Kildare protest
Although the protest formed part of the IFA’s ‘Enough is Enough‘ campaign, protestors also questioned politicians on issues surrounding Co. Kildare in particular.
With south Kildare known as a tillage area, O’Connor said the lack of tillage incentive scheme was discussed.
He said Minister Heydon understood farmers concerns, and said he feels a similar type of payment to the tillage incentive scheme needs to be introduced.
O’Connor added that the derogation was also discussed, along with the “bureaucracy of all the schemes and inspections”.
Sinn Féin councillor, Noel Connolly said he met with farmers to hear how “issues are affected by council policy”.
He said that farmers explained the campaign to present political representatives and that he “fully supports” the ongoing meetings with county council.
“It annoys me that most of the issues could be fixed if the government councillors just made a phone call to their minister,” Connolly said.
“For example, the lack of dog wardens we have in Kildare versus what is needed could be an easy fix. The minister just needs to loosen the purse strings,” he added.