Farmers ‘should aim anger at cartels’
CAI finance spokesman Eddie Hobbs said there was prima facie evidence that both the milk and beef industries were riven with cartels, which were setting prices paid to farmers and then paid by consumers.
At the moment farmers were only getting whatever price was on offer from the cartels so they were operating in an artificial marketplace, he said.
Leading milk co-ops have been fixing prices for years, an RTÉ Prime Time investigation claimed last month.
“The farmers are attacking the wrong target. The whole agri-business sector needs to be hammered by the Competition Authority as it is riven with cartels. Cartels cause severe damage to the economy and add to inflation. Nobody benefits from the operation of cartels,” Mr Hobbs said.
As the nationwide protest by farmers entered its third day with up to 2,000 tractors taking to the roads, Opposition parties criticised FF backbenchers for squabbling publicly over the demonstration.
Former Junior Agriculture Minister Ned O’Keeffe backed his farming colleagues stating that agriculture was in crisis and many farmers were living in poverty. The Cork East TD said the Government should defer extra costs imposed on farmers But FF Dublin South-Central TD Seán Ardagh said the farmers should abandon their protest He said farmers had done well in recent years and should not strangle the city.
Labour agriculture spokesperson Mary Upton said the split among FF backbenchers did nothing to solve the crisis and they should lobby the Minister for Agriculture to intervene and negotiate with farmers.
Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said Mr Ardagh was engaging in a cynical attempt to take attention away from his Government’s programme of cuts and extra charges which hit rural and working class communities.
Scheduled to enter Dublin tomorrow, tractorcades will travel from: Arklow to Bray, Kilkenny to Carlow to Naas, Durrow and Mountrath to Portlaoise, Kilbeggan and Edgeworthstown along the N2, Cavan to Dunshaughlin, and Ardee/Ashbourne/ Castlebellingham towards Swords.
