Farmers led a merry dance

LIKE the grand old Duke of York, IFA president Padraig Walshe is taking farmers for a quick march around the streets of Luxembourg.

He tells the world he is protesting about the low price of milk. Doesn’t he know the price is formed by the interplay of supply and demand, swayed to a large extent by the EU milk quota system and the strong-arm milkpurchase tactics of the big supermarket chains who are unchecked by EU competition law.

No amount of marching in Luxembourg can exonerate Mr Walshe from his own responsibility for the collapse in milk prices since the IFA lobbied the EU Commission successfully to increase quotas by 5% between now and 2012 at a time when there is an overhang of dairy products on the world market.

Declan Ganley and Raymond O’Malley of Libertas raised the issue repeatedly during the European election campaign, while all Padraig Walshe did was to tell farmers to vote only for pro-Lisbon candidates. But it is the same slaves of EU diktat who cordoned us into this tight corral where farmers get such a low price for their produce. Last week on Matt Cooper’s Last Word radio programme, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan admitted it was low euro interest rates during a time of economic boom and mass immigration from eastern Europe post-2004 which caused the overheating of the economy that led to the recession.

This recession was caused in large part by the effects of the Maastricht Treaty (when we joined the euro) and the Nice Treaty (when we voted for 10-state accession and mass immigration). Minister Lenihan’s honesty is commendable.

It is now Padraig Walshe’s turn to tell farmers the truth about why their product prices are so low and stop leading them on a merry dance around the streets of Luxembourg.

James Reynolds

Secretary

Ballinalee IFA Branch

Laughill

Coolarty

Edgeworthstown

Co Longford