Farmers to stage protest tomorrow

A FARMERS protest is set to take place in Castlebar tomorrow (Tuesday) over ongoing holdups in GLAS payments.

The national chairman of the Irish Natura & Hill Farmers Association (INHFA), Vincent Roddy, said of the processing delays, 'enough is enough'.

This protest, he said, comes in response to the fact that the Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, has failed to heed the warnings coming from the INHFA that action would be taken if the problems within his department to issue GLAS payments to desperate farmers wasn't sorted out.

“We've had enough of being treated as second class citizens and putting up with broken promises from this minister who gave assurances that farmers would be paid 85% of their GLAS money before Christmas.”

The INHFA believes it is unacceptable that farmers should be penalised for the department's inability to sort out its own internal inefficiencies.

Mr. Roddy pointed out: “If necessary, experts in IT systems must be outsourced to sort out this mess. Farmers cannot wait any longer for their wages. What other sector in Irish society would put up with this?”

He added: “We intend to keep our promise and are staging a number of protests to highlight this matter, beginning on Tuesday (January 31) outside Davitt House, DAFM headquarters, Castlebar.”

The protest will start at 12 p.m. and run for the afternoon.

All farmers are requested to show solidarity with the plight of those unpaid farmers and attend in large numbers to send a clear message to the minister.