IFA President to address Longford meeting ahead of Mercosur trade deal protest

Dog owners have been urged to take responsibility for their pets in order to reduce attacks and protect livestock.
The 2026 'No Dogs Allowed' campaign will be launched on Thursday, January 8 on the farm of Longford IFA Sheep Chairperson Joe Esler in Carrickedmond with IFA President Francie Gorman in attendance.

Mr Gorman will subsequently address several local IFA branches in the Rustic Inn, Abbeyshrule ahead of the Mercosur trade deal protest in Athlone on Saturday, January 10.

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The organisation's annual ‘No Dogs Allowed’ campaign, was rolled out for the first time in 2021 and the IFA has consistently appealed to the Government and local authorities to address the issue of dog attacks on livestock.

Mr Esler, a retired garda, said IFA farmers are not anti-dog but what they condemn is 'irresponsible' dog ownership and they are lucky that very little people in county Longford are not able to control their dogs:

"Every person should be anti-irresponsible dog ownership because nobody wants to see a dog go into the wrong area," he added.

Last year, the 'No Dogs Allowed' campaign was launched in February, but with IFA President Mr Gorman due to travel to county Longford for a meeting with local IFA branches on Thursday, they decided to add the launch to his itinerary.

Mr Esler said the issues around county Longford generally relate to dogs that leave the house without the knowledge of their owners and they 'could go for miles'.

He stated if a farmer goes out and he or she is lucky enough to find a dog running around and no harm is done they should contact the dog warden and the guards.

"Some owners are unable to control their dogs, to bring them out and walk and let them go and get them to come back to them.

"You hear all sorts of stories in other parts of Ireland where the dogs run riot and the owners can't get them to return.”

The 'No Dogs Allowed campaign is being run by the IFA in conjunction with Longford dog wardens and local Garda Sergeant James Rowan and Garda Anthony Scanlon and Mr Esler will address groups of local farmers afterwards.

A national protest against a controversial Mercosur trade deal will be staged in Athlone this Saturday, January 10 and Mr Esler said

IFA chief Mr Gorman is 'encouraging every farmer, interested person and every stakeholder' to attend.

"Everybody is well aware of what is the potential damages they're doing to the beef industry here, to farmers.

"The local farmers in Ireland are subject to a serious amount of regulations and and we welcome them and we take them on board.

"And then we find out that our competitors from some other parts of the world have no regulations at all.

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"There's no difficulty in getting products from any other country into Ireland, but it should be a fair playing field, yeah.

"And if we have to jump through hoops and other people don't, well that's not a fair game.

"It's like playing football and they have the referee and umpires on their side."