Over 2,000 protesters turned up to the EU Commission offices on Lower Mount Street on Monday 31 August, asking for immediate action to be taken to resolve the income crisis facing farming, and especially the grain, dairy and pig sectors. IFA president Eddie Downey called on the EU Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan to move to implement EU measures to underpin the viability of farm families.

Eddie Downey warned that farmers across a range of enterprises are under severe pressure as political interference in markets, price volatility and unregulated retailers combine to decimate farm incomes and undermine the sector. The protest is a prelude to the larger protest organised by European farmer representative bodies COPA and COGECA to be held at the Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels on 7 September.

Our reporters have been tweeting pictures and videos from the protest, some of which we have collated below.

Watch: IFA President Eddie Downey pours a couple of hundred kilos of grain onto Lower Mount Street at a protest outside the EU Commission offices in Dublin