The controversial question of compensation for farmers for land acquired for road building by the National Roads Authority will be discussed today at the annual general meeting of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association in Limerick.
The £4.5 billion road-building programme has been delayed since August by farmers refusing to allow surveyors on their lands.
Their action is said to be costing the taxpayer an estimated £1million a week.
While the Irish Farmers Association is leading the action, ICMSA members make up some of the 8,000 farmers who will lose 25,000 acres to new roads which form part of the National Development Plan.
The President of the ICMSA, Mr Pat O'Rourke, said last night that his organisation was demanding that compensation for land lost to road development should be tax free.
"It should be treated in the same way as an award from court for personal injuries and it is unfair that it is not," said Mr O'Rourke.
He said the farm organisations would meet the Government tomorrow and he hoped there would be progress towards resolving the problems.
Mr O'Rourke said the main concentration at today's meeting would be on income.
"We will be asking the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, who is attending the a.g.m., to seek index-linked supports for farmers from European and national funding," he said.
"Since 1995, there has been a 16 per cent decline in farm income and that cannot continue.
"The only way forward is to index-link the supports which are paid to the farming community to prevent continuing erosion."
Mr O'Rourke, a 45-year-old dairy farmer from Co Longford, said he was happy with the continuing development of the organisation which was now responding very quickly to challenges.