The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is set to target county council meetings to highlight the frustration felt by farmers across the country.
It marks the next phase in the farm organisation’s campaign after thousands of farmers took to the streets two weeks ago in a national show of solidarity with their European counterparts.
IFA president Francie Gorman made the announcement after a meeting of the IFA National Council in Dublin last night (Tuesday, February 13).
During the meeting he updated council members on the association’s discussions with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue last Wednesday (February 7).
IFA
In a post on social media, Francie Gorman said that following that meeting the minister agreed to make an interim payment to all farmers participating in tranche 1 of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) who have not yet received their advance payments.
“This goes some way to sorting out the payments mess created by his department,” the IFA president said.
“However, there’s no doubt that there’s huge frustration with farmers on the ground about the way that they’ve been treated by the political system.
“We’ve decided that for the next phase of our campaign, we’re going to target county council meetings around the country. The message to our politicians is that enough is enough,” Gorman added.
The first demonstration as part of this next phase of the IFA campaign is set to take place in Co. Longford today.
Farmers will assemble in their tractors outside Templemichael School at 3:00p.m before driving to the council chambers ahead of a meeting of Longford Country Council scheduled for 4:00p.m.
Longford IFA encouraged as many members as possible to attend, adding that they hope to engage with the councillors and deliver a clear message on key farming issues.