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14 July 2014

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400+ at Sinn Féin farms meeting in Ballinalsoe

Minister Michelle O'Neill MLA addresses the crowd in Ballinasloe

BALLINASLOE’S Gullane’s Hotel was packed on Friday 11 July when Martin Ferris TD and the North’s Agriculture Minister, Michelle O’Neill MLA, hosted a Sinn Féin meeting on the beef crisis facing Irish farmers and their livestock marts.

The public session was preceded by a face-to-face with mart managers from all over the 26 Counties who had been invited by Martin Ferris to come to Ballinasloe to meet with Michelle O’Neill and two of the newly-elected Sinn Féin MEPs, Martina Anderson and Matt Carthy.

Usually, cattle dealers from the North come to the livestock marts along the Border (and even further west and south) to buy and sell on in the North. The mart managers explained to the Sinn Féin Agriculture Minister that the labelling issue has created a severe crisis for them. She pledged her support for their call for an EU derogation on this issue, another example of how the Border has a damaging effect on trade on this island.

Ballinalsoe meeting July 2014

•  ICSA, ICMSA, UFA, ICOS and IFA reps listen to Sinn Féin's Dáil spokesperson on Agriculture, Martin Ferris TD

The public meeting which took place later in the evening was a standing-room-only event where 400-plus farmers heard Michelle O’Neill, Martina Anderson and Matt Carthy backed the regulation of the beef industry to avoid manipulation of the market by the beef barons who have had everything their own way and seem to be able to penalise farmers at will and drive prices down by flooding the market with their own stock.

Many of those who spoke from the floor said the marts and the big producers seem to have insider knowledge of the trade that could only come from having access to the AIMS database, giving them an unfair advantage over the small producer trying to turn a profit after finishing cattle.

The meeting was also addressed by IFA President Eddie Downey, ICMSA President John Comer, Ray Doyle of the ICOS Livestock Executive, Pat McCarthy from the United Farmers’ Association, and Malcolm Thompson from the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association.

Ballinalsoe meeting July 2014

•  Sinn Féin team standing up for farmers in Ballinasloe, all over Ireland and in the EU: Matt Carthy MEP, Martina Anderson MEP, Martin Ferris TD, Michelle O'Neill MLA, Cllr Gerry Murray and Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh

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