The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has announced that it will stage a protest at a meeting of the Cabinet in Cork next week on the losses incurred in the beef sector on the back of Brexit.
The association is demanding an aid package for beef farmers to cover the €101 million losses that the sector has seen as a result of Brexit.
IFA president Joe Healy said today, Friday, April 26, that farmers had been “hammered” by financial losses as as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, claiming that this has been ignored by Government.
“Farmers need a retrospective aid package to cover losses of €101 million Brexit related beef price cuts,” said Healy, arguing that Government commitments to support the sector had “amounted to nothing so far”.
He insisted that the the Government and the EU Commission must “honour” commitments they have made on this issue.
The IFA said that it would be “sending a strong message to the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his Government Ministers that beef farmers cannot be hung out to dry on Brexit”.
Angus Woods, the IFA’s livestock chairman, echoed the points of the association’s president.
Minister Creed needs to make the beef issue and the Brexit losses his priority. We have met with the officials in the Department of Agriculture and the EU Commission, and they accept that Irish beef farmers have incurred significant Brexit losses.
Woods highlighted that the IFA has “put a detailed set of proposals” to Minister Michael Creed and Phil Hogan, the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development.