The Beef Plan Movement has stepped away from a farmer protest at the gates of a beef processing factory in Grannagh, Co. Waterford.
According to the Beef Plan’s south eastern regional chairman, Enda Fingleton, the decision was made because “some of the people on site weren’t prepared to follow the Beef Plan’s guidelines”.
Fingleton said: “We have our rules and they weren’t being followed so we had to pull away from the protest in Granagh. It has now become a farmers’ protest.”
The guidelines
Members of the Beef Plan Movement have been consistently stressing to farmers supporting the organisation’s protests at beef factories around the country to follow set guidelines at all times during demonstrations.
In a statement to AgriLand, leaders of the movement said: “The only thing that will stop the protest now is if some people do not follow the guidelines that have been provided and some people break the law.
“Preventing cattle going in by blocking a factory entrance is illegal and could result in the courts forcing us to stop protesting,” leaders warned.
There will always be people that have little or no integrity and we know those people can easily be bought out – this has been happening since the start of this protest as it has happened in this country for years.
“At the factory entrance we can ask farmers to support our protest and bring their cattle home; however, if that person decides not to support our protest, whether we like it or not, we have to accept their decision.”
The group claimed that, as “decent, honourable” farmers would not pass its protest, it is “just a matter of time before the factories run out of cattle”.