A PROTEST by farmers against cuts in the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (Reps) turned violent yesterday when protesters attacked a car carrying Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith during a visit to a cheese plant in west Cork.
Over 20 farmers surrounded Mr Smith’s car as he was exiting the Carbery Group plant near Ballineen at around 2.05pm yesterday and began kicking and pummelling the car as they called on Mr Smith to reverse the Reps cuts.
Some 20 gardaí struggled to contain the protesters after one farmer lay down in front of the ministerial car and prevented it from leaving the plant. About 20 other farmers rushed the vehicle and starting kicking the doors and pounding on the roof and bonnet with their fists.
Protesters chanted “Reverse the cuts” as they pressed four and five deep on the car, which suffered a number of dents as it took over 10 minutes to travel less than 100 yards and get free of the crowd, with many protesters hurling rolled up cardboard placards at the car.
No punches were thrown at gardaí during the melee but officers were pulled and hauled away from the car, with Insp Jerry Lacey being knocked to the ground just in front of the car as he tried to clear a pathway for Mr Smith and his entourage to leave.
According to Supt Eddie MacEoin of Bandon Garda station, who was in charge of the operation, it was extremely fortunate that no one was injured as gardaí were dragged and pulled away from the car by a small group of protesting farmers jostling to get at the car.
“Everything had been good-humoured enough up until that, but when the Minister went to leave, unfortunately a red mist came down for a small minority of the farmers and they just lost it completely – we were lucky no one was seriously injured,” he said.
“One officer was knocked to the ground at the back of the car and another was knocked to the ground right in front of the car – somebody could have been seriously hurt if they fell to the ground as the driver was trying to get away from the plant,” he said.
Supt MacEoin said he had agreed with Irish Farmers’ Association protest organisers that Mr Smith would leave the plant by the front exit on condition that the protest would remain peaceful – but the IFA failed to honour that commitment. “I’m disappointed with the lack of stewarding by the IFA officers as Minister Smith left the plant – we had agreed with them that it would be a peaceful protest, but they failed to honour that undertaking and several of my officers were assaulted as a result,” Supt MacEoin said, adding that no arrests were made.
IFA deputy president Derek Deane who was present at the protest which was attended by up to 1,000 farmers, rejected this view and said IFA officers had come to the assistance of gardaí by trying to keep protesters back so the Minister could leave.
“It boiled over at one point, but what was being expressed was the anger and frustration of farmers and the isolation they now feel from this Government and Government policy – clearly these cuts are going to have a huge impact on farm incomes,” he said. “We had told the crowd not to touch the Minister’s car in any way, and the vast majority of those present abided by that, but the IFA were not involved in the incident with the car – it was our officers who were trying to hold people back and assist the gardaí,” he said.
Earlier, over 1,000 farmers from all over Munster had heard Munster IFA vice-president Seán O’Leary warn that the Government’s decision to close Reps would “collapse the incomes of 30,000 low-income farmers across rural Ireland”.
Mr Smith, who was visiting a new €10.6 million cheese-making facility at the plant, said nobody’s Reps payment would be affected in 2009, and that more farmers were now benefiting from the scheme than ever before.