"They aren't going away you know", SF leader says of protestors

The Sinn Féin president called for solidarity amongst farmers and factory workers when she attended the beef farmers' protest outside Liffey Meats this evening.
Mary Lou McDonald spent about an hour listening to the concerns of the farmers from the Beef Plan Movement staging the protest at the plant on the outskirts of Ballyjamesduff, before answering questions from the media.

The Sinn Féin leader's appearance today coincided with a warning from Meat Industry Ireland (MII) that the processors affected would pursue legal action to bring an end to the nationwide protest. Despite this serious development the atmosphere was relaxed and good humoured amongst the determined farmers. Supping a cup of tea, Deputy McDonald even quipped of the protestors: "They aren't going away you know."
In a statement MII had outlined: “Unfortunately, because of Beef Plan blockades, and in the aftermath of its refusal to enter talks brokered by the Minister, businesses have, as a last resort, been left with no choice other than to seek legal remedy in an effort to prevent Beef Plan from causing further damage to the Irish beef industry.”
Asked her reaction to this development, Deputy McDonald insisted that everyone had the right to free assembly in a democratic society.
“I think in circumstances where people's livelihoods are threatened and where they are on their knees they have a perfect right to take a stand,” she said.
Deputy McDonald was the first of the party leaders to attend any of the dozen or so protests nationally, and she was welcomed by Beef Plan spokesman Micheál Rafferty who was grateful for the support.

Solidarity

It was also announced today that some of affected businesses have been “forced to lay off employees with more expected to be laid off in the coming days as operations grind to a halt”.

While Deputy McDonald said she was standing in support of the farmers protesting, the Celt asked who will stand for the factory workers who are losing out on work?
She said that she hoped the workers who, she claimed were being exploited in this “very very lucrative industry” will understand the action of the farmers. She added that she hoped that there would be a sense of “solidarity” between the beef farmers and the factory workers.

“People deserve a fair day's pay for a fair day's work if you're working in a factory,” she told the Celt.
Deputy McDonald arrived in Ballyjamesduff flanked by party's two candidates for Cavan-Monaghan in the next general election Matt Carthy MEP and Pauline Tully. The Sinn Féin politicians were scathing of Minister Michael Creed's role in resolving the issue, and his demand for an end to the protests ahead of talks.
“It's not good enough for the minister to say that he's going to chair talks, but he's going to chair those talks on the basis of the same preconditions as one of the parties to the talks. That's not good enough, and it can't be accepted and he needs to intervene," said Matt Carthy. "He has to become part of the solution rather than, as he is at the minute, part of the problem.”
The Anglo-Celt asked Deputy McDonald that in light of the party's poor showing in the recent Cavan County Council elections in which they went from four seats to one if their appearance in Ballyjamesduff  wasn't opportunistic. She accepted that they want to build their support base, but insisted they and said that they are representatives and it is their responsibility to attend. 
Addressing the crowd Matt Carthy MEP commended the manner in which the protests had been conducted and insisted that no drivers had been blocked from entering the factories. When the Celt attended last Thursday there was a considerable queue of tractors and trucks from Liffey Meats' back, which lasted numerous hours as protestors blocked the entrance until gardaí warned that they would make arrests and cleared a path.

Meanwhile, in an impassioned speech Micheál Rafferty compared the beef sector to their colleagues in dairy farming to explain why they felt they had to protest. 
“The milk industry has a strategy; the co-ops work with the farmers. The only strategy we get from the beef factories – we hear from them that they're pulling the price. That's not a strategy, and that 'strategy' has run out for them as far as we're concerned because that is no longer and option.”