Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed has been called on to immediately hold bilateral talks with the meat plants and farm organisations by the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA).

ICMSA president Pat McCormack urged the minister to hold the talks to establish whether there is a basis to hold a round-table discussion on the crisis within the sector.

Reiterating his previous call for a resumption of talks, McCormack said there is massive pressure on farmers at present due to low beef prices.

He added that unseasonal weather conditions are now becoming an additional negative factor in many parts of the country.

McCormack said that with a potentially disastrous no-deal Brexit now just nine-odd weeks away, another week cannot go by without progress being made.

The president said that the seriousness of the situation demands that everyone set aside their pre-conditions and come forward with proposals that will address the concerns of farmers.

He repeated his conviction that the minister and his department need to bring forward their Brexit-related proposals and cannot be merely facilitators to these talks.

McCormack said that farmers need to have confidence that there will be a support package in place to address the Brexit-related losses suffered since May and going forward.

Brexit is looming and a resolution must be found immediately to allow the normal cattle kill to resume and it is important that the Chinese inspections are facilitated.

“But it’s equally important to note that the farm organisations are at one on the substantive issues facing farmers and this notion of division between farm organisations on issues such as 30 months and residency periods is simply incorrect,” he concluded.