The leader of a farm lobby group has called for action on Government support for beef farmers saying: “The ‘wait and see’ approach has worn out with farmers.”
President of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), Joe Healy, has stressed that beef farmers are “fed up hearing empty promises from politicians about what they will do on Brexit”.
“The reality is that Brexit has happened for beef farmers who have been hammered by financial losses.
Commitments from the EU Commission and the Government to support farmers have amounted to nothing so far.
Speaking ahead of the IFA protest at the cabinet meeting in Co. Cork on Wednesday, May 1, Joe Healy stressed: “Farmers need a retrospective aid package to cover losses of €101 million as a result of Brexit-related beef price cuts.”
The IFA president called on the Government and the EU Commission saying they must “honour the commitments that they have made” regarding Brexit losses.
The cabinet is meeting at Blackrock Castle, Cork, on Wednesday at 10:00am.
The IFA will 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.
The IFA’s livestock chairman Angus Woods added that the IFA has put a detailed set of proposals to both the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, and the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, on the losses in the beef sector.
Concluding, Woods said: “Minister Creed needs to make the beef issue and the Brexit losses his priority.”