DISGUSTING! Longford MEP slates decision to send army tanks to remove farmers from side of road

Longford MEP Ciaran Mullooly has described the decision to send out army tanks to remove farmers from the side of the road as ‘disgusting’.

He questioned the judgement of An Taoiseach Micheál Martin and said farmers ‘need dialogue, hope and commitments going forward.”

Addressing the European Parliament Agriculture Committee in Brussels, the Independent Ireland MEP stated;

“I'm watching pictures on my mobile phone of tanks, army tanks, going into parts of my member state, Ireland, sent there by the Irish government this morning to remove farmers from the sides of roads, public roads, where they are protesting over the price of fuel. And I'm saying to myself, is this immature reaction? Is this, should we not be trying to create some dialogue with farmers and show them positivity in terms of what can be achieved in the coming months? But no, we're going with a hammer.

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“And I remind the members in this room that this decision was made by the Taoiseach of our country, who will be president of Europe in July. This is his mature judgement, is it. To go at it with a hammer this morning, sending in the defence forces, an army to take farmers? 

“Farmers need answers. They need dialogue. They need hope. They need commitments going forward from the member states. The tax issue, the VAT issue has to be relooked at immediately. But this House, this Commission has to play its role.

“We need to see urgent state aid flexibility, which will allow people to be prioritised in the coming months. And I think the Commission, I ask the Commission to look at expanding and fast-tracking state aid for haulage, agriculture, fisheries, who are on their knees as well, or rural SMEs and households dependent on home heating oil. I really think we need a new EU-level emergency fund.

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“We're going to need this. It's not a short-term problem. We're going to need a new RRF-style emergency resilience instrument at European level. We're going to need it in the autumn. We should start preparing for it. So I appeal to the Commission to start progress on this issue immediately.

“And for God's sake, treat individuals as human beings. Do not be sending tanks out to remove farmers from the side of the road. It's disgusting.”