UP TO 10,000 people braved torrential rain yesterday to attend Limerick Show, the biggest agricultural event in Munster.
The show, which normally runs over a weekend, was scaled back to one day this year when organisers decided not to overburden sponsors who may be under financial pressure due to the recession.
Opening the event, Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness called for a Yes vote to the Lisbon Treaty. “I would urge you to vote Yes to Lisbon because it is the best thing for this country,” she said. “For a small nation we punch above our weight in the EU and whatever your view, it has been a force for good in Ireland.” Ms McGuinness also tackled claims made last week by breakaway group Farmers For No that approving the treaty will see the introduction of European inheritance laws here and pave the way for Turkey to join the EU.
Formed last week, Farmers For No maintains that the introduction of European succession rights will see landowners here forced to split holdings between their children, which would mean breaking up family farms. It also claims that if Turkey joins the EU the number of farmers in the union will double, with the same amount of grant aid being divided among twice the number.
Ms McGuinness told the gathering: “While some suggest that voting Yes might have an influence on succession rights and Turkey joining the union it has nothing to do with that.” She said that approving the treaty will make the EU more effective and give MEPs a greater say. “The 732 members of the European parliament will be more involved in decision making on agricultural issues,” she said.
“They will have a greater influence on decisions and on the budget that surrounds them. I would ask you to give the vote serious thought and perhaps to turn the radio off and not listen to all the argey bargey that is being said.”
She told show goers at Limerick Racecourse in Patrickswell that farmers face very tough times with poor prices for produce, unstable weather and lack of support from the banks placing farm families under immense pressure.
“There is not a sector that has not hit the wall,” she said. “I am thinking of the grain that people are trying to harvest at the moment in terrible weather, and then the poor price that they will get for it.”
Ms McGuinness said that it is crucially important that the population of Europe can rely on high quality food produced within the European Union. “You don’t produce quality food on the cheap,” she said. “I believe very passionately that Europe must produce food for European citizens. If we allow food production in Ireland and the EU to decrease, we will import more and more produce from places where we cannot control production methods or animal welfare or other standards.”
More than 500 cattle competed at the event and up to 1,000 horses and ponies were put through their paces in show jumping and showing contests.