MICHEÁL Martin’s government had it coming. People seem to have forgotten the protests by farmers about Mercosur which reached a crescendo in December and January.

Mercosur is the EU-South America trade deal which took over 25 years to negotiate.

It creates one of the world’s biggest free trade areas, between the 27-country EU and the Mercosur bloc of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay.

Irish farmers are strongly opposed to it, as are farmers in Poland, France, Hungary and Austria.

The main gripe of Irish farmers is that the deal permits 99,000 tons of beef into the EU from South America, which they believe will undercut prices of Irish beef.

Anyway, the point is that the deal went through the EU in January and thousands of tractors blocked roads in the south or engaged in go-slows in protest at ratification.

It was a dry run for what happened last week and, at the time of writing, is still happening in places.

Many farmers, this time supported by hauliers, do not think the government’s €500 million financial package is enough.

The difference is that on the Mercosur deal, the protesters were successful in changing policy.

The Irish government had wanted to support the deal because it’s good for Ireland and also in case they fell into disfavour with the EU Commission.

However, the determining factor in changing the........

© The Irish News