Wexford IFA to join picket line at Ministers meeting today

The IFA says it will not attend the meeting for farm organisations called by the Minister for Agriculture this morning.

It was due to be held to discuss new EU nitrogen limits which could see cuts to dairy herds, instead the Irish Farmers Association says it will picket outside. Wexford IFA Chair, Jer O Mahony, spoke to South East Radio News on his way to the picket line. He says that payments to farmers have been delayed and they have no indication as to when they can expect payments: "The Department of Agriculture are saying that they are delaying payments for over a month because of a new IT system. We have no definite date for when when the single farm payment and other payments will be delivered.  This is completely unacceptable. These payments really help farmers to keep afloat at this time of the year. It needs to be sorted out, hopefully our protest today will lead to this happening."