The Animal Collectors’ Association (ACA) is being called on to resume fallen animal collections while talks take place between the association and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has called on both parties – the ACA and the department – to engage in talks “immediately” to resolve the dispute, and for the knackeries to continue collecting animals while negotiations take place.
Lorcan McCabe, the ICMSA’s deputy president, said: “Unfortunately, farmers are finding themselves in the middle of a dispute between two other actors, at an already hugely pressurised time of year, which is being compounded by the recent bad weather.
The animal collectors provide a hugely important service to farmers and it is essential that further talks take place to resolve this matter.
McCabe suggested that collections of fallen animals resume at the same time as an “intensive round of negotiations aimed at resolution”.
“We think that would break the ‘logjam’ and enable progress on this very disruptive issue in which farmers are not directly involved, but are essentially the principal victims,” McCabe added.
The ICMSA deputy president also acknowledged the business struggles faced by knackeries.
“We urgently want this sorted out, but fallen animal collections have got to be cost-effective, and that reality must be kept in mind in the resolution of this dispute,” McCabe concluded.
Talks today
Representatives from the ACA will meet with department personnel later today, Monday, March 2, for talks aimed at breaking the impasse.
Set to be held at 2:00pm today in the department’s offices, the talks will seek to end the ongoing full closure of knackeries in strike over lack of progress to date regarding supports under the Fallen Animals Scheme.
According to a representative of the ACA, the organisation is calling on the department to act urgently, pointing to the added stresses on the farming sector at present, such as flooding around the country.
The spokesperson reiterated that the knackeries’ action is “in protection of the farmer as well”, highlighting that they do not wish to increase collection charges if possible.