Tractor protest: Better beef deal must be reached
The farmers’ tractor protest which returned to the streets of Dublin yesterday was one of the biggest yet, discommoding hundreds of thousands of businesses, shoppers and city dwellers.
A similar protest in November led to part of the capital being closed off for more than 24 hours.
This one is set to last two days. Individual farmers are taking part in the demonstration as part of their ongoing campaign over beef prices, carbon tax and other issues.
Dublin is not the only European city to have seen such protests in recent times. In October more than 2,000 Dutch farmers in tractors caused a 1,100km traffic jam in The Hague in protest against claims that they were largely responsible for a nitrogen oxide emissions problem.
A further, smaller protest was carried out in December. Nearly 600 of 16,000 dairy farms in the Netherlands have had to close following the introduction of strict phosphate controls there.
While the Irish farmers may not win many friends outside of their own community through their action on the streets of Dublin, the reality is that they would not be protesting were it not for the fact that they are being paid a price for their cattle that is well below the cost of production.
The beef taskforce was intended to address this issue but according to farmers’ spokesperson Daniel Long it is a “talking shop”.
Yet a talking shop is exactly what it should be, so long as those talks reach a conclusion that is fair to all.
