Led by the local IFA (Irish Farmers Association) Chairman Seán Lavery, dozens of tractors hit the roads of County Limerick on Thursday night last in an extraordinary show of solidarity with their col-leagues in such countries as Belgium, France, Germany and Holland, who have been protesting now for several weeks largely over dissatisfaction with ever-increasing EU regulation.
The return protest travelled from Patrickswell to Adare.
“Their problems are our problems. They are slightly different in every case but we all have problems with the way Governments are treating farmers. It is no coincidence that the farmers in many parts of Europe are all protesting for their own particular local reasons,” Mr. Lavery said.
“They are coming from a sense of dissatisfaction with EU regulations and the way they are being implemented and applied.”
Macra President Elaine Houlihan, Kilmallock, said “The frustrations being felt by farmers across the EU have been well flagged, yet these frustrations are being ignored. Food production is in crisis. With 6.5% of farmers in the EU below the age of 35, there is little hope for the future of an industry that will age into obsolescence.
“If this Government is serious about the environmental impact of farming, then real action is required Real action is facilitating transferring the control of land to the next generation, who are both willing and able to make the seismic changes that are required.  Continued inaction and a reliance on the measures in CAP (Common Agriculture Policy) to effect the changes that are needed is tantamount to the Government burying its head in the sand.”
The Limerick-based ICMSA (Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Asso-ciation) was also repre-sented at the protest, a unit headed-up by Denis Brennan.
“What’s amazing currently is the ‘political deafness’ of the European Comm-ission and the ‘political hypocrisy’ of Governments like our own, who are happy to ram through measure after measure on the grounds of sustain-ability and climate mitigation that hit farmers – and only farmers,” he claimed.