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An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that he is conscious that many farmers are “being paid less than the cost of production for what they produce”, but that the aggressive scenes outside the beef taskforce meeting earlier in the week couldn't be justified.
Speaking at the Agri-Food Strategy 2030 in the Aviva Stadium, An Taoiseach told the crowd that farmers and the agriculture industry had played a pivotal part in helping the economy bounce back after the recession.
“It really was agriculture foods, multinational sector and the tourism that saved Ireland from a permanent depression. And that's something that I'm very conscious of and very aware of,” Varadkar said.
Aggression and violence is never justified
He went on to say that while he recognised the current difficulties for beef farmers, that he still believed that there was a way forward.
However, he said he was “disappointed” by farmer protests that had disrupted the first beef taskforce meeting.
“I was very disappointed to see the scenes on TV the other day of people being impeded from doing the day's work,” Varadkar said.
“I don't think that's the way to go forward. Aggression and violence is never justified. And we should never stop people trying to go about their daily work, and it's definitely not the way forward.
"And we're very keen to see [the] taskforce meeting, being allowed to do its work, to get busy on improving sector and improving industry for everyone is involved.”
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