The Irish Farmers' Association's campaign to win more income for its members gets under way with a picket being placed on a function today at Strokestown House, Co Roscommon, which is being attended by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen.
The picketing action was decided on last week by the 80,000-strong organisation in the wake of the failure to reach agreement with the Government in the national partnership talks.
The farmers believe that they have been forced out of the partnership agreement and they have decided to picket official functions attended by two Ministers and three Ministers of State said by the IFA to have done nothing to help the agricultural sector.
The Ministers on the picket list are: the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh; the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen; the two Ministers of State at Agriculture, Mr Liam Aylward and Mr Noel Treacy; and Mr Tom Parlon, Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach.
The IFA president, Mr John Dillon, denied that the action was intimidatory. He said that it was being carried out to highlight the pressure farming families were feeling.
Since the talks involving the farming "pillar" ended without agreement over a week ago there have been no moves to bring the farmers back into the structure. If anything, relations between the IFA and the Government have deteriorated. Last week, Mr Walsh pointed out that the package being offered to farmers was worth over €300 million for the duration of the agreement. He told the Dáil that the farming demands submitted to the Government at the start of the talks would have cost about €1 billion.
The IFA expects that about 100 of its members will be at Strokestown House today, where Mr Cullen will be attending a waste management conference.
Mr Cullen has been targeted because the IFA believes that he has hindered farmers in finding a solution to the implementation of the EU nitrates directive, which will curb nitrate and phosphate use on Irish farms. The farmers want a liberal interpretation of the directive.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, will not be picketed this week by the IFA because he has suffered a family bereavement. His 53-year-old brother, Edward, who was married with three children and farmed at Ballinascarthy, Co Cork, died at the weekend following a short illness.
His burial will take place today at 2 p.m. from the Church of the Assumption at Ahiohill.