Farmers from around the country gathered in protest outside the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party think-in in Co Tipperary on Monday 11 September over changes to the nitrates derogation.

Hundreds of farmers came on foot and in their tractors to express their anger at the cut to the nitrates derogation from 250kg N/ha to 220kg N/ha, which was confirmed last week.

Despite efforts by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to meet with the Irish Farmers' Asssociation (IFA) on Monday morning, the IFA refused and demanded a sit-down meeting with An Tánaiste Micheál Martin.

Both the Minister and An Tánaiste came out to face the protest and agreed to sit down inside the hotel with a delegation from the IFA.

IFA president Tim Cullinan told the Minister: "We want you to get the officials in the Commission to come over here to Ireland and see what we are doing. Remember what we have here, we have grass-based system here in Ireland which is unique right around the world."

An IFA delegation met with An Tánaiste, Minister McConalogue, Deputy Jackie Cahill TD and Senator Paul Daly inside the hotel to negotiate and, after about an hour, IFA president Tim Cullinan came back out to address the crowds.

Despite negotiations, Cullinan said that "no commitment" had been given during the meeting.

"We had a really strong, robust meeting. Look, we got no commitment, which is a concern. But the reason we are here is because we haven't got a commitment from him for the last year and a half," Cullinan said.