‘We have been tearing our hair out down here’

Conal Tiernan: “Rural Ireland hasn’t been listened to for the last five years. We have been tearing our hair out down here trying to get the message across that rural Ireland is dying, but nobody wants to listen. We are in the heart of suckler country here, great land and great cattle and yet nobody wants to follow in their fathers’ footsteps and farm – and you couldn’t blame them.”

Listen to "Elphin Mart Dry Cow Sale Monday 20th January 2019" on Spreaker.

‘I’m worried for this part of the country’

Danny Beirne: “The farmers of this country kept the country going when everything went belly up in 2007, and we got no recognition for that. I can’t see anything changing to be honest and I’m worried for this part of the country. They’ll promise us everything for the next three weeks but once they get in, it will be the same old story, they’ll look after themselves and no one else. The Green Party are on about doing away with diesel engines by 2030. We’ll have right fun drawing in five cows in an Ifor Williams with an electric car.”

‘Politicians need to look after the farmers better’

Dermot Bruen: “I’d run the whole lot of them. There’s no policy at all for rural Ireland. The politicians need to look after the farmers better. Doing away with REPS [Rural Environment Protection Scheme] was a disgrace.

“Replacing it then with these little schemes, one after another, is no good to no man. Everybody seems to think it’s trees that are needed for this part of the country.”

‘Reduce cattle numbers, you reduce farmer numbers’

Gerry Connellen: “If the Green Party ends up in government, it’s a disaster and I don’t want to see that happen. They need to come to this mart and see how important the live export trade is to the farmers of this country. It’s funny how they want to protect the countryside but yet they want to reduce the number of cattle we have.

“If you reduce cattle numbers, you reduce farmer numbers, so who will look after the countryside then. Maybe they’ll come down from Dublin at the weekend to do it.”