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Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
The tractors exiting the Port Tunnel earlier.
# Rush Hour
Traffic moving again on M50 but huge delays following farmers' protest during evening rush hour
It comes after the protesting farmers moved from the city centre to Dublin Port earlier this afternoon.
LAST UPDATE | Jan 16th 2020, 7:05 PM
GARDAÍ HAVE SAID traffic is seriously delayed southbound on the M50 this evening due to a farmers’ tractor protest.
Blockages are being reported from the Port Tunnel M1 merge onto the M50 with the tractors creating a huge backlog with their go-slow protest.
It comes after the protesting farmers moved from the city centre to Dublin Port earlier this afternoon.
Dozens of tractors, decorated with placards, arrived yesterday afternoon and remained overnight. They brought areas of the city to a standstill as farmers journeyed to the port, and caused gridlock on the M50 during the evening rush hour.
Just before 6pm, the tractors were approaching J5 at Finglas.
The M50 Twitter account advised that “traffic remains extremely heavy behind them”.
At around 7pm, the same account said the “main bulk of the tractors have left the M50 now to head out the M3, M4 and M7. Traffic remains slow in parts but the heavy traffic from earlier has eased.”
A collision northbound, meanwhile, between J6 Blanchardstown and J5 Finglas was also causing traffic delays on the motorway this evening.
The organisers of the protest, the Individual Farmers of Ireland, are critical of the deal reached with the government over beef prices last year after weeks of demonstrations by farmers during the summer.
The farmers also criticised the Beef Task Force and accused politicians of not listening to the farming community when they voice their concerns.
