Philip Brennan, Kilkenny

I’m from near Rathdowney. Every morning I see the protests. I can see anger first hand that’s there with the farmers. There’s a case there, of course there’s a case.

While there might be 30 farmers outside, for every farmer outside there’s 10 or 20 not outside and I just wonder when this is going to break.

Am I going to have go bringing all my cattle into the slatted units for winter? That’s not possible for all farmers.

When negotiations take place and agreements are reached, they have to be appreciated.

West Cork farmer

I must say, although no one needs to be told, beef farmers are in a bad way. It is completely a price issue. The price is way back and it is a crisis.

I just do not know [how we solve the crisis]. The way things have gone in the last couple of weeks, you just don’t know. Will it come back? That’s the question. It will be difficult.

Richie, farmer

Everyone seems to be at the same starting point that we all started at. That is the biggest problem.

The farmers are not going to come off the gates until they get something concrete. They’re promising that they’re going to give them so much and they’re going to do this, but there’s nothing happening.

The biggest problem is we’ve too many groups, all the different groups. We need one crowd doing all the talking for everyone. Farmers are hurting themselves as well as everyone else.

Gerry and Denis McCarthy, Louth

As farmers, you have to change as demand changes for different products. Everyone has to change or you get left behind and you end up not making any money.

It will take more money [to get protesters off the gates]. That will be a base price and then incentives to produce a better product. The higher the quality that you produce, the more you should be entitled to. People are prepared to pay more for higher quality.

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