The Hill Farmer Action Group is planning to picket the office of the Taoiseach from next Wednesday 3 September to raise issues with what it says are the “unworkable conditions” associated with the proposed GLAS and Single Farm Payment Schemes.

The decision came following the meeting on Wednesday, 20 August in Westport, at which a massive crowd gathered.

The meeting called on the Minister for Agriculture to change the current proposals in both Pillar I and Pillar II schemes – to abolish the collective agreement and implement a minimum stocking rate of 0.05LU/ha to classify an active farmer on hills rather than the proposed “min and max” stocking rate model.

They have said that the picket will not be lifted until the issues are resolved. They are planning another meeting on Friday 5 September in Letterkenny. Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal yesterday, Brendan Joyce, IFA Connemara chairman and a spokesman for the Hill Farmer Action Group, called on “all farming organisations to take a leap of faith and support hill farmers and their families.”

Speaking at last Wednesday’s meeting, Colm O’Donnell said: “On the Minister’s first day in office, he pledged to protect family farm incomes, especially in vulnerable areas. O’Donnell said: “You are all disadvantaged farmers; you farm hill sheep and produce a product that has no market on the most handicapped land in the country. It is our basic right to get into the scheme, yet the minister chose to prioritise productive farmers.”

He added: “We are not looking for any favours; we are looking for fairness. If we are active farmers, then we should be allowed to enter the scheme as individual farmers. We need to make changes to the Minister’s proposals that were sent to Europe.”