An Independent candidate in the upcoming General Election met with tractor protesters to discuss their concerns at the recent tractor protest in Dublin City.
Verona Murphy – who will be running as an Independent TD for the Wexford constituency – met farmers and agricultural contractors at the most recent tractor protest in Dublin to discuss their concerns surrounding carbon tax.
She suggested that farmers should consider growing rapeseed and noted that this could potentially enable Ireland to “produce an alternative carbon-neutral energy like Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) fuel”.
She added that rapeseed oil “can be grown here, can be produced here and it’s a rotation crop”.
She said that some of the tractors taking part in the protest were using AdBlue and said “it costs money and there’s nothing in it” for contractors.
Continuing, she said: “The trucks and tractors that are using AdBlue are cleaner than any car and there is [currently] no alternative to the fuel you use.
“It’s time to stop keeping the costs on us and do something constructive about it,” the Wexford election candidate concluded.
Update on protest
The tractors taking part in the protest in Dublin City have now left Dublin Port, made their way down the M50 and are now returning home.
Speaking to AgriLand, James Geoghegan, a farmer and contractor who took part in the protest explained that the tractors exited the Dublin Port area “at a slow pace” via the Port Tunnel and exited Dublin via the M50 Southbound.
Significant traffic delays were experienced on the M50 southbound as the the tractors made their way down the road and took their respective exits returning to the countryside.
Geoghegan told this publication: “What ever Government comes in after the General Election will know that we are serious and we are fed up of being brushed aside and ignored.
“Any Government that ignores us after this would be very, very foolish,” he concluded.