The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) president has called on the government to take immediate action to address fuel and fertiliser costs.

Denis Drennan said farmers and contractors as frustrated and angry as they watch "their basic viability being eroded by deeply unfair pricing".

The comments come as protests by contractors, hauliers and farmers continue in Dublin and across the country over spiralling fuel costs due to the war in the Middle East.

ICMSA

The ICMSA president warned against dismissing the "wholly justified concerns" being raised as "temporary blips" or beyond government control or remedy.

"The current protests are happening in advance of a six to eight-week period on farms that will see the most intensive use of fuel and fertilisers with crops being sowed and silage being harvested – and consequently, the most serious costs.

"That’s why we need to see actions and measures aimed at relief now - not in two months’ time," he said.

Drennan added that "the maths on this is very simple and very alarming".

"Eight weeks ago a farmer had to sell two litres of milk to cover the cost of one litre of green diesel.

"Today, that same farmers has to sell probably five litres of milk to cover the costs of that same litre of green diesel," he said.

Drennan also noted that two months ago it was costing the farmer more to produce the milk than he or she was receiving in payment.

"Any farmer in Ireland today is considerably better off by not doing anything; not milking his or her cows, not spreading slurry or buying and spreading fertiliser. Not producing milk or beef.

"That’s an impossible position and we need to hear the government recgnise that," he said.

The ICMSA president said the problems in the pricing of Irish food and the ‘built in’ costs that were making Irish farming unviable “obviously” preceded the current war.

“Obviously, like all right-thinking people, farmers wish for peace in the Persian Gulf.

"But the idea that peace there will resolve our problems in farming and food production here is delusional and allows those in a position to address the underlying problems to delay or ignore them till the next international crisis breaks out.

"We need, and have long needed, the highest possible representatives of government to look at the inherent costs of producing food in Ireland, the lop-sided margin-allocation along the supply-chain, and the resultant wild volitility of farm incomes.

"That is the single biggest obstacle to getting the next gerneration of farmers in situ.

"This isn’t an overnight problem; it didn’t start with the war in the Gulf – nor will it end there," he said.

"We desperately need the government to recognise that and start looking at real long-term solutions to the problems that are now so evident," Drennan added.