A spokesperson for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed has said: “Issues remain on both sides” regarding the convening of the Beef taskforce.
However, the spokesperson expressed optimism that the taskforce would meet “sooner rather than later” and explained that in the meantime, “measures contained in the Beef Sector Agreement continue to be progressed”.
It is now over five weeks since the director of Meat Industry Ireland (MII), Cormac Healy, was denied entry to Ag House on Kildare Street by a group of protesters.
It was hoped the first official sitting of the much anticipated Beef Market Taskforce would have taken place the day of the protest, however, when the MII director could not attend, the meeting was postponed and farm organisations are still awaiting a date for the first official meeting from the taskforce’s chairperson, Michael Dowling.
Since then, a number of pressing issues have remained relatively stagnant as the taskforce has not met to discuss and progress on issues in the beef sector.
No date has been set, as of yet, for the next meeting of the Beef Market Taskforce.