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A peaceful protest was held by members of the Beef Plan Movement outside Aurivo’s Ballaghaderreen plant in Co Roscommon on Friday morning, Conal Tiernan of the Roscommon branch has said.
The protest coincided with Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed official opening of Aurivo's new spray dryer.
If you go into a supermarket and buy €10 worth of beef, the farmer gets €2, the processor gets €3 and the supermarket gets €5, yet farmers have that animal for up to 30 months
Tiernan told the Irish Farmers Journal that in the region of 100 people attended the protest.
“The Minister [for Agriculture Michael Creed] arrived at 12.20. We had a list of questions to ask him but he refused to let down the window of the car. He didn’t engage with us,” he said.
Tiernan said the group was on site from 9.30am until just before 1.00pm and held the protest over the beef price in Ireland today.
“If you go into a supermarket and buy €10 worth of beef, the farmer gets €2, the processor gets €3 and the supermarket gets €5, yet farmers have that animal for up to 30 months,” he said.
He also said the group was there over the Mercosur deal, which he said would undermine the Irish beef market should the 99,000t of beef be let into the EU.
He said Bord na Móna workers joined the group in the protest. “Rural Ireland now seems to be on the agenda of the Government as they’re closing down power stations and hospitals ... if it keeps going there’ll be no west of Ireland.”
More protests
He said the group told Aurivo it would be a peaceful protest and they didn’t go on to the property.
“We have more protests coming up. There are venues picked already. Dublin is included,” he said.
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