Temple Bar Properties, the State agency running Dublin's designated cultural quarter, is to meet today with stall-holders from the weekly food market in Meeting House Square. They will discuss the market's closure due to the foot-and-mouth alert.
The stall-holders, some of whom travel from as far away as west Cork, are incensed at TBP's decision to cancel it - especially as the market in Moore Street and Dublin Corporation's Fruit and Vegetable Market remain open.
On Saturday, stall-holders were handing out leaflets to disappointed customers at the square, urging them to write to or e-mail TBP calling for the closure decision to be reversed.
Notices on the gates of the square, erected by TBP, said the market had been cancelled "due to circumstances beyond our control" and expressed regret for any inconvenience caused. The notices did not mention the foot-and-mouth alert.
Signs put up by the stall-holders pointed out that many other food outlets were still open, including the Dublin Food Co-op in Pearse Street. A spokesman said they would have taken every precaution, including the use of disinfectant mats.
For many of the 28 stall-holders, it is their only source of income. "They work at their produce all week and reap the benefit of their work on Saturday while others use it as an extra retail point," said Ms Helena Hemeryck.
"But despite our reassurances that all possible measures have been or will be taken to safeguard against any outbreak of foot-and-mouth, the future of our market hangs in the balance," she said, adding that TBP's decision would mean a major loss of earnings.
Stall-holders at the market, which was established in 1997, sell a range of food, including handmade chocolates, chutneys, yoghurt, eggs, vegetables, organic venison and pork sausages, gourmet breads, oysters, smoked salmon, sushi, quiche and tapas.
Established in 1997 under licence from TBP, which owns Meeting House Square, the market has had its problems along the way, according to the stall-holders, but has taken off in recent times. Now they are concerned that it might fall apart.
At today's meeting with Ms Tambra Dillon, who took over as TBP's managing director last December, the stall-holders will be pressing for the closure decision to be reversed, subject to the implementation of precautionary measures against foot-and-mouth.
