A senator has called on Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to intervene in a dispute between knackeries and rendering plants.
Fine Gael Senator Tim Lombard told the Seanad that “all knackeries in Ireland are effectively closed” as a result of the issue.
“We have a build-up of fallen animals in rural Ireland. I spoke to individuals in west Cork earlier about the fact that more than 35 calls were made to one knackery.
“The owner does not have the ability to go out and pick these animals up because he has no place to take them,” he said.
Sources in the knackery sector have told Agriland that rendering plants in the Republic of Ireland have stopped accepting material from knackeries for rendering since last Monday (December 4).
It is claimed that this is due to the knackeries’ inability to pay the cost of rendering, which increased a number of months ago.
Senator
Senator Lombard said that mental health is “a significant issue” among Irish farmers, adding that people do not want to be around farms where there are dead animals.
“The people who pick up the dead animals are effectively out of business at present.
“They cannot move, knackeries are full and there is no place to render the carcasses because these people have left the trade. The dispute with the rendering plants needs to be dealt with.
“I cannot for the life of me understand how it has come to this. We knew that this issue was building in the past few months, but it has now hit a real crisis point,” he said.
Senator Lombard said that “the time for debate is over” and there needs to be a meeting between Minister McConalogue, the knackeries and the rendering plants “about how we can move forward”.
“Dialogue needs to happen, otherwise we will literally have dead animals lying around Ireland.
“Unfortunately, winter is coming. This means that there is potential for more animals to die. This is scandalous. I just cannot understand where matters stand,” he said.
Fine Gael Senator John Cummins agreed that the issue needs to be urgently addressed as it is currently posing a “big challenge” across rural Ireland.
Fianna Fáil Senator Robbie Gallagher, who was “born and reared on a farm”, added that “no farmer like to see a knackery van come near his farm”.
“It affects the mental health not only of the farmer himself but the entire family, because as we know, farmers love their animals. We would like to see that dispute resolved as soon as possible,” he said.