More than 9,000 farmers and representatives from agricultural businesses staged a protest in Dublin today to highlight their concerns about the direction of the latest round of world trade talks.
Agriculture interests claim that a world trade deal agreed on the terms put forward by EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson would virtually wipe out the sector here as Europe would become flooded with agricultural produce from non-EU countries.
Farmers protesting in Dublin
They argue that the current negotiations would cost the Irish economy €4 billion and see 50,000 farmers put out of business, along with 50,000 job losses in the processing sector.
The protest on Molesworth Street was addressed by the leaders of the main agriculture organisations and was timed to coincide with a visit to Dublin Castle today by President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso.
Addressing the crowd, Irish Farmers’ Association president Padraig Walshe said Mr Mandelson had to be stopped, warning: “We are now facing a trade deal that will destroy CAP.”
“Mandelson is engaged in race to the bottom, the lowest standards of food safety, of animal welfare . . . we are not going there. Europe will be flooded with food that has no traceability, no welfare standards, and the ever-present risk of foot and mouth.”
If you shut down Irish farming, you shut down rural Ireland - IFA president Padraig Walshe
He called on Mr Barroso to “take charge” and stop the trade commissioner. Mr Walshe also urged the Government and Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan to take action and warned: “Don’t expect us to do your bidding in the [Lisbon] referendum."
“If you shut down Irish farming, you shut down rural Ireland. That’s our message to the Dáil.”
ICMSA president Jackie Cahill told the farmers a trade agreement was not a done deal and that Irish farmers and rural Ireland should not be underestimated as they would fight the Mandelson deal “with every ounce of our strength”.
Mr Cahill said Irish farmers were being asked to accept Eastern European wages and exist on Third World prices, and he called on Mr Barroso to suspend talks for two years to allow for a “new beginning based on fair trade and food stability”.
The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) called on the Government to veto any deal at the WTO talks which would be "detrimental to the farming community".
ICSA president Malcolm Thompson was speaking at the meeting addressed today by Mr Barroso.
Mr Thompson said: “Giving away so much already at the WTO talks represents one of the most shortsighted and potentially calamitous policy developments in the history of the European Union.”
“World food scarcities can only be alleviated by all farmers being encouraged to produce food and being paid a reasonable price for their effort, not by freeing up trade to the extent that many farmers are driven out of business.”
Mr Barroso told the National Forum on Europe today, in response to concerns raised from the floor by farmers' representatives: "We are very much attentive to the concerns of the farmers of Ireland and we are negotiating to meet their real concerns. We will not accept opening the floodgates to beef imports.”
Among the protesters, Gerry Tighe, a farmer from Sligo, said the proposed trade deal would be a “death knell” for the west of Ireland. “Look all around you, it’s all farmers who are 60-plus . . . who’s going to want to go into farming in the future?”
John Waters, a dairy farmer from Longford, said food quality would inevitably suffer under the proposed deal. “No one knows anything about beef from Latin America . . . here, we have rules and regulations, but they have no traceability, no nothing.”
Patsy Dardis, a Co Westmeath farmer, said the Mandelson proposals were "totally alien to farmers' rights, the rights to produce food in your own country".
Creamery co-operatives, meat processing plants, marts, veterinary outlets, grain suppliers and even some auctioneering houses closed for three hours from noon.
The protest has drawn the support of at least seven county councils. Cavan; Carlow; Donegal; Leitrim; Sligo; Waterford and Wexford councils have each passed a motion calling on the Government to assert Ireland's vital national interest and reject Mr Mandelson's concessions in the trade talks.
