THOUSANDS of protesting farmers laid siege to the Hotel Europe outside Killarney yesterday where EU agriculture ministers were meeting on the BSE crisis in the beef industry.
Some 2,000 farmers broke through the security ring at lunchtime, leaving the official IFA protest on the main road, 500 metres from the hotel.
There was some pushing between police and the protesters as the Garda lines were overwhelmed by the volume of protesters. The front doors of the hotel were quickly locked by gardai, who sealed off the building from the protesting farmers.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, went to the front of the building to make an appeal. The farmers jeered him when he asked them to disperse. Mr Yates told the farmers there were women inside and they were very upset.
Eventually, the protesters were led away by the president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr John Donnelly, who had been appealing for calm.
Government sources were attempting to play down the protest as a publicity exercise by the IFA. There was, nevertheless, a major breach of security.
Senior Garda officers were furious at the IFA action and accused the organisation of breaking its word to them. They had given every co-operation to the IFA, said one senior officer, but that trust had been breached.
The Ministers had agreed at their meeting that unspent EU funds should be made available to beef farmers by way of paying some of next year's premia before October 15th.
The Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, said it would be up to national governments to arrange this by putting up their portion of the funds before that date.
He also indicated that the Commission may increase the percentage of the premia it pays. While he did not specify what percentage or put a price on the package, more than £400 million is available from current funds.
This will give an immediate, much needed income to beef farmers and increase the farm budget for 1997 because it is based on 1996 levels of expenditure.
In addition, the special agriculture committee of the Commission will be reviewing the amount of beef allowed into intervention by raising the 400,000 tonne limit which will be reached by the end of this month.
It was also agreed to press ahead with a common labelling system which will give consumers proper identification and quality. There was agreement to press ahead with plans for a marketing drive to increase consumption levels.
Mr Yates said he was very pleased with the outcome of the meeting and the fact that action is being taken to put measures in place to address the very serious problems facing the industry.
Pressed on the protest, the Minister said he is aware of the anger in the farming community about what has happened through no fault of their own.
The fact is though, we are here addressing those problems. We are doing very constructive work and we want to get on with that business" he said.