Around 400 farmers protested against cutbacks in rural agricultural schemes while Taoiseach Brian Cowen opened a new road in Co Galway this morning.
Members of the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) booed and heckled Mr Cowen over cutbacks in the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (Reps) and the Disadvantaged Area Scheme at the ceremony in Ballinasloe.
Earlier this month, the Cabinet decided to exclude new applicants to the fourth round of the Reps with little, if any, warning. Farmers say closing entry to the scheme will devastate livelihoods in the west of Ireland.
As Mr Cowen spoke at the opening ceremony this morning the farmers loudly protested on the other side of a barrier using megaphones, booing and banging sticks throughout his address.
Michael Silke, Connacht vice-president of the IFA, said: “It was an opportunity to give him the sense of the cuts that he is imposing on farmers in the west of Ireland.”
Mr Cowen said we live in a democratic society and that people have a right to protest. He said farmers in existing scheme will get paid and there will be a opportunity to look at a new agri-environmental scheme in the future.