Coughlan Heckled at the Ploughing

road_high

Mary Coughlan was booed and heckled yesterday by members of the Midlands beet growers group. Maybe it wasn't an appropriate time to vent their anger, but I have to say I sympathise more with them than the minister.
Opinions? Now if they'd done it to Parlon, I'd have joined in meslf:D

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Furious farmers silence minister
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1695828&issue_id=14694
No sweetness as bitter beet protest drowns out speech

IRATE sugar-beet farmers demanding more compensation for the loss of their livelihood drowned out Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan at the opening of the Ploughing Championships.

Ms Coughlan was forced to cut her opening speech short at the event in Tullow Co Carlow after a group of about 60 hecklers persistently chanted, blew foghorns and called on her to "go home".

The protesters were from the Midland Beet Growers Association.

Organiser Michael Kelly, from Myshall in Co Carlow, said their protest might be seen as bad manners, but it was an ideal opportunity to make their feelings known in the former heartland of the sugar-beet industry.

"It's in the Government's power to come up with proper compensation. When the minister retires she'll have a pension, similarly we just want a fair deal," he said.

Ms Coughlan criticised the protesters as "unmannerly" and rude to the Ploughing Championships organisers and said she had planned to talk about the sugar-beet industry, but would not do so in these circumstances.

It was the second time this week that a senior Fianna Fail politician has come under fire from the public. Ceann Comhairle Rory O'Hanlon needed garda protection in Monaghan from protesters angry at the downgrading of their hospital.

Speaking to media later, Ms Coughlan said she had agreed the EU compensation rates payable to sugar-beet farmers under the Single Farm Payment, totalling €123m over the next seven years.

The sums paid to individuals will be linked to the amount of land used for sugar beet in 2001, 2002 and 2004 and is part of the €310m won for Ireland under EU negotiations once it became clear the industry could not be maintained.

Greencore is currently taking legal action over the carve-up of the €145m restructuring fund, of which they got 90pc, with the remainder going to farmers.

The Government was also working on new energy crop policies at EU and national level that would give farmers a viable alternative, Ms Coughlan said.

Challenges

"This is the way in which we can afford the tillage sector opportunities to change and to deal with the challenges we presently have," she said. Ms Coughlan also announced details of a new scheme to allow farmers buy and sell milk quota more easily, which will facilitate those who wish to scale up or cease production.

"The new Milk Quota Trading System will create a more open market system of transferring quota and will allow farmers much greater freedom to make choices about how milk quota should be transferred, affording them far greater scope to decide the volume of quota they wish to buy," she said.

However, ring-fencing of quota within co-op areas will continue to stop milk production being wiped out in less productive areas like the west.

Farmers will have two opportunities to trade quota, in November this year and Spring 2007, and 30pc of quota sold will be sold to a priority pool for young farmers, those in need of land and large producers, with the rest more freely tradable in a market pool.

The two exchanges would be crucial to give buyers and sellers a chance to gauge market prices, said Richard Kennedy of the Irish Farmers Association.

strassenwolf

Unison.ie wrote:

IRATE sugar-beet farmers demanding more compensation for the loss of their livelihood drowned out Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan at the opening of the Ploughing Championships.

I don't get it. I could understand that their livelihood would have been taken away if someone had confiscated their land. That has not happened. They still have the same amount of land as they had when they were producing beet.

Can they not now proceed to grow other crops? Then harvest those crops, sell the produce and carry on living as before.

Where's the problem?

Wishbone Ash

It won't bother Mary too much. Beet farmers in Donegal South West are thin on the ground. Now if it was connected with sheep/beef/sucklers.......:D

road_high

strassenwolf wrote:

I don't get it. I could understand that their livelihood would have been taken away if someone had confiscated their land. That has not happened. They still have the same amount of land as they had when they were producing beet.

Can they not now proceed to grow other crops? Then harvest those crops, sell the produce and carry on living as before.

Where's the problem?

This is a simplistic view. Beet was by far the most profitable crop grown here by a mile- on a par with milk production with a fraction of the work. It was also a great break-crop in cereal rotations. That's why the farmers are up in arms.
Other crops don't come near beet for margins, thats the main issue really...
Their livelihood has not been taken away as such but has been greatly diminished. How many other workers in other sectors would like a huge paycut?Not too many I would imagine..

strassenwolf

mfitzy wrote:

This is a simplistic view. Beet was by far the most profitable crop grown here by a mile- on a par with milk production with a fraction of the work. It was also a great break-crop in cereal rotations. That's why the farmers are up in arms.
Other crops don't come near beet for margins, thats the main issue really...
Their livelihood has not been taken away as such but has been greatly diminished. How many other workers in other sectors would like a huge paycut?Not too many I would imagine..

There's nothing simplistic about it all. The beet industry no longer exists, so they'll have to do something else. It may not be as profitable, but that's just too bad. Why do they expect compensation?

Plenty of people have had to find new ways of earning a living over the years. And plenty of people have had to take pay cuts over the years. The 270 workers who will be made redundant by Castlemahon foods are going to be taking a pay cut. Should they get compensation from the Government?

road_high

strassenwolf wrote:

There's nothing simplistic about it all. The beet industry no longer exists, so they'll have to do something else. It may not be as profitable, but that's just too bad. Why do they expect compensation?

Plenty of people have had to find new ways of earning a living over the years. And plenty of people have had to take pay cuts over the years. The 270 workers who will be made redundant by Castlemahon foods are going to be taking a pay cut. Should they get compensation from the Government?

Thats a completely different issue to the one you've raised. I'm not getting into a farmer vs PAYE worker argument here as it's not relevant.
The farmers' main gripe is the fact that 70% of EU compenstaion is going to Greencore, a huge multinational sitting on a now very lucrative land bank. Now I don't think that's right, do you??

strassenwolf

mfitzy wrote:

Thats a completely different issue to the one you've raised. I'm not getting into a farmer vs PAYE worker argument here as it's not relevant.

It's not completely different. Other industries have disappeared and the workers in those industries have had to find other things to do to earn a living. The farmers who previously produced beet are at least left with their land on which they can produce other crops or produce meat of some form. I don't believe that compensation should be involved at all, if it's not involved for workers in other industries.

The farmers' main gripe is the fact that 70% of EU compenstaion is going to Greencore, a huge multinational sitting on a now very lucrative land bank. Now I don't think that's right, do you??

According to the above report, it's actually 90% of the compensation money which is going to Greencore. Like any other business which operates in the private sector, I don't think state/EU compensation should be available to them to make up for loss of income for whatever reason. However, if compensation is going to be paid to people who were involved in the sugar industry, I believe that it should be paid out from the bottom up, with Greencore being the very last entity in the queue. And I believe that, if compensation is to be paid, the farmers should get the lion's share.

Rovi

strassenwolf wrote:

It's not completely different. Other industries have disappeared...

Were they 'disappeared' at the stroke of a pen as a policy decision of government (either in Dublin or Brussels) though?

strassenwolf wrote:

...and the workers in those industries have had to find other things to do to earn a living.

As will the former beet growers find alternative uses for their land.

.

fits

mfitzy wrote:

This is a simplistic view. Beet was by far the most profitable crop grown here by a mile- on a par with milk production with a fraction of the work. It was also a great break-crop in cereal rotations. That's why the farmers are up in arms...

It was also completely an artificially inflated industry, kept buoyant by subsidies. I do feel sorry for the beet growers, but its over... they'll have to find something else. The EU cant keep on giving out money for nothing..

I dont think it is comparable with milk production. I think the public should be paying twice the price for a litre of milk.

maidhc

strassenwolf wrote:

According to the above report, it's actually 90% of the compensation money which is going to Greencore.

Has it been decided yet? I thought Greencore were judicially reviewing the decision in an effort to get even more. Sickening!

Victor

strassenwolf wrote:

Plenty of people have had to find new ways of earning a living over the years. And plenty of people have had to take pay cuts over the years. The 270 workers who will be made redundant by Castlemahon foods are going to be taking a pay cut. Should they get compensation from the Government?

And those workers will get redundancy payments, with 60% coming from the social welfare fund.

The speech http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/ministerspeeches/coughlan/2006/OpeningPloughingChamps_270906.doc

The_Conductor

Did anyone else notice Martin Ferris and quite a few other SF activists among the hecklers?

memorystick

Where is Mary now? How does she compare to Creed?

Boards is acting up but it is a good question. She allowed the beet industry to die. Our current guy is allowing the same to happen to beef. Maybe we could have a poll.

charolais0153

memorystick wrote: »

Where is Mary now? How does she compare to Creed?

Boards is acting up but it is a good question. She allowed the beet industry to die. Our current guy is allowing the same to happen to beef. Maybe we could have a poll.

Bit different, for beef to be profitable it needs to be one of the highest €/kg in Europe and i dont see how that is possible when we export the majority of our beef

blue5000

Closing this zombie thread down, PM me if you want it re-opened, blue5000