Approximately 50 people gathered at the doorway to Agriculture House in Dublin this morning, Monday, October 14, to voice their frustration at the threat of legal injunctions still remaining over some of the farmers who were involved in the recent beef protests.
AgriLand spoke to some of the people at the protest to find out why they made the journey to Agriculture House this morning.
One man outlined: “We came up here to support our fellow farmers that were injuncted. I had an injunction myself and I got it off in the Beef Sector Agreement on Sunday, September 15.
They were all supposed to be dropped but they reneged.
Another man outlined he was there “to support the three men” [with the threat of legal proceedings over them].
One of the farmers told the director of Meat Industry Ireland (MII), Cormac Healy, that “we came here for clarity”.
He asked Healy to “clarify if all injunctions are going to be lifted or not”.
Another farmer said: “We’re here because MII reneged on its deal. They’re claiming the offal processing plant in Edgeworthstown isn’t a meat processing plant.”
Farmer and Fine Gael county councillor Paraic Brady – who still has legal threats over him – said: “It was part of the original deal so they’re moving the goalposts now and saying it’s not part of the original deal. It’s only enraging farmers and putting a little bit of anger in them.”
Concluding, Brady stressed: “We don’t want that. We want talks to go ahead. There needs to be structured talks but they need to lift the injunctions.”