Businesses and the trade union movement have combined to strongly condemn today's protest march in Dublin by an estimated 15,000 farmers. They have described the action, which is expected to cause traffic chaos, as "irresponsible and selfish".
They have appealed to farmers to call off the protest or else confine it to the Phoenix Park, where the march is due to start at 12 noon, arriving at Government Buildings in Merrion Street at 1.30 p.m. The farmers plan to hold a rally there and will be addressed by their leaders until about 3.30 p.m.
Gardai have advised motorists not to park along the march route from 6 a.m. The route will be closed totally from 12 noon but will reopen in stages as the march passes by.
Describing the farmers' rally as an "invasion", Mr Peter Cassells, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, said: "This is another example of rich farmers piggy-backing on the backs of a minority of poor farmers and other low-income rural dwellers to try and bully the Government into giving them more handouts.
"PAYE workers are sick of watching billions of pounds of Irish and European taxpayers' money being used to subsidise well-heeled farmers."
Mr Cassells said that such "bully-boy tactics" did nothing to help the case of genuinely poor farmers and other low-income rural dwellers. The ICTU believed that where farm families could show they were living on incomes which were sufficiently low to qualify for a form of family income supplement, such families should be entitled to claim these benefits.
The Dublin City Centre Business Association called on the farmers to hold their rally in the Phoenix Park and spare the centre of the city a day of mayhem.
It said that the Irish Farmers' Association would only create greater hardship for Dubliners by obstructing traffic. "Farmers cannot expect to get the support of Dubliners by creating further traffic congestion, undermining jobs and the economy of Dublin. Disruptive public protest by businessmen farmers is no substitute for intelligent substantive research. It is time for farmers to put their case in a businesslike manner and abandon the politics of street protests."
The march, which is being supported by the IFA and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, has provoked an urban-rural split in the Labour Party. The party's Dublin MEP, Mrs Bernie Malone, has criticised the action, saying: "Farmers have no right to disrupt my city."
However, Labour Senator Pat Gallagher (Laois/Offaly) gave his backing to the protest. The farmers were right to highlight their income crisis and had "every right to protest in Dublin", he said.
He added: "While Bernie's opinions highlight the lack of understanding which many urban communities have in regard to the current crisis in Irish agriculture, I am nonetheless very disappointed that she has reacted in this way."
He pointed out that the Labour Party had called on the Government to prepare a White Paper on agriculture as a means to devising a plan for the future.
In an advertisement urging farmers and their families to take part in today's march, the president of the IFA, Mr Tom Parlon, said it was being held because the association was not prepared to accept "Government and EU inaction on collapsing farm incomes, disastrous cattle, pig and sheep prices, including red tape and bureaucracy".
A spokesman for the ICMSA said: "We apologise to the people of Dublin. But we have explored all the avenues and there is a need for a day of protest in order to put the necessary pressure on the Government. Unfortunately, any dispute causes problems for other people, but we have been forced into this corner."