Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has been called on to “get down off its high horse and enter into talks with farmers without any preconditions”.

Speaking on RTÉ‘s Morning Ireland, the Irish Farmers’ Association’s (IFA’s) president, Joe Healy, said a solution to the ongoing beef farmer protest “is very clearly needed now”.

The president of the IFA said: “Farmers are angry, they’re frustrated and their incomes are on the floor.

We have seen farm incomes drop every year and what we need here is the likes of the retailers, the processors and MII to ensure that there’s a fair breakdown of the consumer euro.

Healy stressed that the IFA has “called very, very clearly on MII not to take an injunction against farmers”.

“This won’t be solved in the high courts,” he stressed.

“This is MII flexing the financial clout that it has over and above farmers. It’s wrong and it shouldn’t be done.

It’s time to get in around the table, discuss with farmers and see what’s the best way forward.

“Farmers can’t continue to produce top-quality product and get below the cost of production prices for that product,” Healy concluded.

Heavy-handed

Yesterday, the IFA’s president described the move by MII to take legal action as “heavy-handed, ill-advised and counterproductive”.

Commenting on the issue, Healy said the move announced by the Ibec group is “counterproductive in terms of finding a solution to the very serious issues affecting beef farmers”.

The IFA president said that MII should set aside any pre-conditions and enter the talks proposed by the minister.