IRISH farmers took to the streets to protest yesterday at the 10 per cent cut by the EU Commission in export refunds, which has thrown the beef markets into chaos.
Export refunds are the mechanism used by the Commission to subsidise beef and other companies exporting goods to markets outside the Union where prices are lower.
The Irish Meat Association, representing the State's meat factories, has claimed that the 10 per cent cut will lead to a drop of 6p per lb in cattle prices.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, yesterday appealed to the factories not to reduce the price of cattle because of the cut, which he will attempt to have reversed at next Monday's farm ministers meeting in Brussels.
Mr Yates confirmed that the issue had been raised in Strasbourg yesterday by the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, when he met the Commission President, Mr Jacques Santer.
The Irish Farmers' Association suspended its annual general meeting in Dublin and the council members and officials mounted a demonstration outside the office of the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, and the EU offices. The group handed in a letter of protest for the EU Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler.
"The IFA is on full political alert to force the Government into a major campaign in Brussels to reverse these severe EU cattle price support cuts," said Mr John Donnelly, the IFA president.
He urged farmers not to panic by selling their cattle and said the IFA would leave no stone unturned in applying the maximum political pressure to protect the incomes of winter beef finishers.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Frank Allen, accused the Commission of mismanaging the EU beef market and said it was totally incapable of putting a proper system in place.
Meanwhile in Moscow the Irish technical delegation was having what were termed "difficult negotiations". It is attempting to convince the Russian authorities not to extend their current ban on beef from Cos Cork, Monaghan and Tipperary to five other Irish counties where there have been more than four cases of BSE in, 1996.