Galway Summit protest planned
THE Beef Plan Movement (BPM) is planning to stage a large ‘peaceful demonstration’ before the start of a major ‘Beef Summit’ to be held in Ballinasloe this Thursday evening (May 9).
Galway Chairperson of BPM, Kevin O’Brien, told the Connacht Tribune, that their peaceful protest would coincide with the start of the Beef Summit in the Shearwater Hotel where all the major stakeholders would be in attendance.
The Beef Summit – organised by the Irish Farmers Journal – is already a ‘sell-out’ with the 1,200 free tickets for the event all booked up and will be addressed by Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed.
Senior representatives from Teagasc, the meat processors, ICBF, UCD and the Dept. of Agriculture will also be present at the summit that is scheduled to start at 7pm and end at 10pm.
Kevin O’Brien told the Farming Tribune that with only a very slight improvement in cattle prices over recent weeks, this evening’s protest (starting at 6pm) would aim to get the message across to all stakeholders that beef farmers couldn’t stay going with the current price regime.
The protest is being organised by the Western Region of the Beef Plan Movement and is expected to attract several hundred people judging by the turnout of farmers that BPM achieved at a series of regional meetings over the past year.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.