Three of the farmers with legal threats remaining over them – following the recent beef protests – have outlined their case to AgriLand at the protest outside Agriculture House today, Monday, October 14.

The three farmers in question are as follows: chairperson of the Beef Plan Movement, Hugh Doyle; Longford county councillor for Fine Gael and beef farmer, Paraic Brady; and Longford farmer Colm Leonard.

Speaking to AgriLand today, Hugh Doyle said: “The Beef Plan Movement is showing solidarity with our farmer colleagues. There are two individuals who still have legal proceedings pending.”

He explained: “Our taskforce representatives have gone into Agriculture House with the intention of handing in a presentation to the chairman of the Beef Market Taskforce, Michael Dowling, asking him to adjourn the proceedings until all litigation is stood down.”

Doyle added: “There are injunctions pending on two individuals” and noted he has yet to receive confirmation on whether a legal threat over himself has been removed.

The agreement at the previous round-table talks was, as soon as the pickets were stood down, all litigation would cease.

Concluding, Doyle noted: “From what they told us in the last two weeks, their injunctions are still live.”

Paraic Brady

Longford Fine Gael county councillor and beef farmer, Paraic Brady, told AgriLand he is “one of the people that has an injunction hanging over my head”.

I came up here to clarify how come it hasn’t been lifted.

He outlined that himself and another farmer were protesting outside C&D Foods and came to Dublin to find out why their injunctions have not been lifted.

Colm Leonard

Finally, Colm Leonard, who says he is “a very small farmer”, said: “I have an injunction over me from C&D Foods in Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford.

I was part of the picket line there; I got an injunction over me. We made an agreement that if the picket was lifted, the injunctions would all be lifted and we would stand down.

However, Leonard stressed: “We have all stood down and the injunctions haven’t been lifted.”

He expressed his anger at the situation and said: “I feel annoyed. I want to see this sorted. It’s stopping me from doing my day-to-day things every day.”

Concluding he outlined: “There are certain parties here trying to bust in through us and they don’t want to hear about these conditions or injunctions.”