The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has decided to postpone a planned meeting with Minister Michael Creed.
The committee has taken the decision as it believes it “would not be helpful” to have the meeting while there are talks going on between stakeholder on the beef sector dispute.
Talks are set to recommence tomorrow, Monday, September 9, between farmer representatives, processors, and officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
TD Pat Deering, the chairperson of the Oireachtas committee, said “it would not be helpful for the Joint Committee to be meeting on the issue at the same time that the stakeholder discussions are reconvening”.
“Given the protracted nature of the dispute, and the impact that it is having on the beef sector, it is important that the stakeholder discussions are allowed to proceed without any possible distractions,” added Deering.
Deering said that the committee “hopes to re-engage on the issue as soon as the stakeholder discussions are concluded”.
Retailers
The second round of talks, following on from a wave of protests at meat plants around the country in recent weeks, is expected to kick off tomorrow. However, retailer representatives will be absent, it has been confirmed.
Responding to this, one of the farmers groups attending the talks, the Beef Plan Movement, said: “We find it hard to understand this as Meat Industry Ireland (MII) lays the blame for the four-movement rule, the 70-day rule and the 30-month rule firmly at the door of the retailers.”
Following on from this, the movement have decided to begin a series of protests at retailer distribution centres around the country.