Pressure to end beef blockades after legal letter sent to campaign leader

A blockade at Dawn Meats plant in Slane, Co Meath was lifted yesterday afternoon, just hours after the company issued a legal threat to Hugh Doyle, chairman of the Beef Plan Movement.

It is understood that protesters are now meeting around the country to decide on whether or not to call off the pickets.

In a letter to Mr Doyle, seen by the Irish Examiner, Arthur Cox solicitors, on behalf of Dawn Meats, had imposed a deadline of 8pm last night for the lifting of the blockade.

They told Mr Doyle that if the blockade was not lifted by this time deadline, they would hold him “personally liable for damages arising from the losses suffered by our client to date and in the future as a result of the conspiracy to which you are a party”.

A spokesperson for Dawn Meats alleged Mr Doyle had told Dawn Meats management that he could have the blockade at the Slane plant lifted if the firm increased the base price being paid for beef — a contravention of the agreement reached by meat processors and farming organisations last weekend.

The blockade was lifted hours in advance of this deadline, and in a statement issued through the Independent Farmers of Ireland, the Slane protestors said they had ended their protests “in the best interests of the beef industry”.

The group said they hoped the move was the “first step” in ratifying last weekend’s agreement.

Meanwhile, a group that claims to represent 7,000 Angus cattle farmers became the latest organisation to call for the protests to an end to .

Gerry Smyth, managing director of Angus Beef Ireland, said their members are struggling to make ends meet.

“Their cattle are going overweight and fat, and moving out of specification, which means they will lose the bonuses that are typically paid for these high-quality animals,” Mr Smyth said.

“These protests have gone too far. Hard-won customers for Angus beef may look to other markets if they can’t buy in Ireland, which would do long-term damage to our members.

“No one is denying that times are tough for beef farmers, but these ongoing protests are damaging to everyone. It’s time to find a solution and allow time for the deal agreed over the weekend to try to work.”

The pressure has been mounting on protesters to call off the pickets after Government ministers warned that the entire future of the beef sector was now at stake, such was the damage being done by the blockades.

Yesterday, Tánaiste Simon Coveney warned that some a number of meat factories could close permanently if the dispute is not resolved soonin the coming days.

“I am really concerned that by continuing a protest and a blockade here, we could see, and in the not-too-distant future — and I mean in days — we could see irreversible damage to the Irish beef sector in terms of loss of contracts, loss of reputation, undermining supply chains in a very fundamental way, at a time when the sector is already under very significant pressure. M ony big fear here is that farm families could be the big losers here.” he said.

Mr Coveney pleaded with protesters to reconsider their position, saying and said there was “a danger here that we could see a number of factories permanently closing.

We’ve already seen a postponement of a very significant investment in terms of an expansion of a factory.

The Tánaiste also called for significant changes and the introduction of a regulator to monitor the beef processing sector.

“It’s the structural changes that we’re looking to try to create in the beef sector that will empower farmers, that will potentially set up a beef regulator to make sure that this industry is regulated with the intensity that’s potentially needed now to make sure that there’s more transparency in terms of pricing, to allow farmers to actually set up a producer group so that they can collectively negotiate price and conditions around supply with with factories in a much more powerful way for farmers.

“These are the these are the things that this deal actually allows for.”