Sir, - I am writing in connection with the farmers' protest in Killarney on September 24th. If Ivan Yates was embarrassed at their behaviour, it was nothing to the way they were treated. These people had travelled by road in buses and cars; no chauffeurs or airborne lifts for them. Their Garda escort wasn't quite as sophisticated, either!
The outcome - or more to the point, the lack of outcome - of the very expensive Beef Tribunal still rankles. That nettle was never properly grasped; neither was the TB eradication one, and now BSE is going down the same road. There are all sorts of possible reasons given for this, from simply a way of cutting back beef and milk production to jobs for vets and, at the bottom, politicians must never lose face (or votes?).
Surely it is in the interests of all farmers, those in marketing and consumers alike - to know and to be assured that there are people (vets?) in the Department of Agriculture who are, right now, digging back into the history of BSE cases, to find if there is a common link or source, and most importantly, if the British Department of Agriculture is doing likewise?
I will be accused of biting the hand that feeds me. There are at least two answers to that one: no matter how many subsidies are handed out the work still has to be done and another calf born live, male or female, is another reason to be thankful - how dare anyone suggest that male ones - should then be slaughtered?
The second answer is a question. Do we expect people in Third World countries to comply with our wishes just because we have sent out goods and money? Were these not sent so that they could be empowered to work and provide for themselves? We can already see what is beginning to happen in the industrial sector, and the EU is doing very well at the expense of our fishing industry.
Personally, I'm sick to the back teeth of this political correctness, though it is interesting to see areas of politics adopting the patriarchal role once played by the Church. Thank God, down on the farm a spade is still a spade. - Yours, etc.,
Kilcormac, Birr,
Co Offaly.