The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) is calling on members from all over the country to attend a protest meeting in Dublin next Monday to highlight falling farm incomes.
  
The protest, at the EU Commission offices on Dawson Street, has been organised to draw attention to the economic difficulties Irish farmers are currently facing, in particular the effects of the ongoing Russian ban on pork products imported from Europe and the low levels of payment made to dairy farmers here at home.

At a meeting this week with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Simon Coveney, IFA President Eddie Downey stressed how farm families are "under severe pressure, as political inaction, severe price volatility, excessive input costs and unregulated retailers combine to depress the price paid to producers. 

“We made it very clear that he must deliver a strong message that support for farm families is urgently needed.”
 
Mr Downey is urging farmers from "every county in Ireland" to attend Monday's protest.
 
The Association’s national dairy chairman Sean O’Leary added, "For dairy farmers, whose margins have come down 92 % in the last sixteen months, we need the EU Commission to fulfill its legal obligation and review the intervention ‘reference thresholds’ in light of increased production costs, and raise those prices to provide a genuine safety net reflecting higher costs."
 
IFA Pigs chairman Pat O’Flaherty claimed that pig farmers across Ireland and the EU face “a serious loss-making situation, and it is critical that the Commission looks to reopen markets - including Russia - for pork products.”
 
Monday’s protest, planned for 11.30 am, will be followed by a further, EU-wide protest, set for Brussels on September 7.

Source: www.businessworld.ie