IFA to host four rallies to help save Irish farming

This Friday, IFA is holding four regional rallies, including one in Roscommon town, to highlight how the current government is pursuing policies that will decimate Ireland's largest indigenous sector.

The rallies will be led by the IFA president, Tim Cullinan, and the locations signify the scale of the sector across the rural economy.

He said: "For the last two years, IFA has tried to engage with government on the sector's future. Despite this, it continues to treat us as low-hanging fruit that it can target with impunity.

"At the same time, it's rolling out the red carpet for energy-guzzling multinationals and allowing food, peat, and timber to be imported from less efficient countries in Europe and further afield."

The meeting point for the Roscommon rally is Hyde Park at 11am, and the rally is expected at 12.30pm

The other rallies are in Cavan - meeting point at Meadow View Inn, Dublin Road, Tirquin) at 7.30am, rally at 8.30am; Portlaoise (meeting point at the Motor Tax Office at 4pm, rally at 4.45pm) and Cork, where the meeting point is Emmet Place, Cork Opera House, at 8pm, rally scheduled for 8.30pm.

In a message urging farmers to attend the rallies, Tim Cullinan said: "The whole government approach is to preach at farmers. The government need to sit around the table with farmers and agree a plan at farm level for the next five to 10 years.

"If they continue on their current trajectory, they will decimate Irish farming and rural Ireland. This will deliver no benefit to the environment as food production will simply move to other countries that have a larger climate footprint than Ireland.

"We have tried to work with the government on these issues, but all we get is ‘stakeholder consultation’. We need more than that. Our livelihoods are on the line."