'We're the laughing stock of the country' - chaos as Galway Beef Plan election abandoned

Beef Plan Movement’s Galway election was officially abandoned last night, Wednesday, January 8, as the meeting quickly descended into scenes of chaos.

The decision to close proceedings followed a significant backlash from the floor when it was announced that Eoin Donnelly – western chairman of Beef Plan and vice chairman of Galway – was ineligible to contest the county chairman position, currently held by Kevin O’Brien.

Addressing the estimated 250-strong crowd, Beef Plan’s Eamon Corley claimed that Donnelly could not be put forward as a candidate for the position as “he is not a registered member of Beef Plan Movement”.

Eoin Donnelly acted as the lead negotiator for Beef Plan Movement during last summer’s beef sector reform talks; he also represented Beef Plan at a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine meeting in Leinster House last April.

Tempers in the hall at Turloughmore GAA club, in Lackagh, Co. Galway, soon flared, with supporters of Donnelly hotly contesting the table’s assertions over his membership.

During Beef Plan’s national membership drive – which largely took place early last year – new members were asked to sign a registration form and contribute a €10 stipend towards the establishment of the organisation.

The standoff in Galway comes after days of significant in-house wrangling on governance issues between current chairman Hugh Doyle and Meath chairman Eamon Corley on one side and several members of the organisation’s National Committee – which Doyle and Corley ordered to be “stood down” last weekend, alongside its spokespersons – on the other side.

Fair and square

The impasse in the west escalated over the course of about an hour, resulting in Fianna Fáil’s Anne Rabbitte, TD for the Galway-East constituency, eventually taking the microphone in an attempt to quell the commotion.

“We are all here for Galway Beef Plan and why is it that we cannot do this fairly, squarely, democratically and transparently for everyone?

It is quite apparent to me and to a lot of people sitting in this room that there is exclusion, discrimination and unfair treatment going on here.

“I’m a pure republican, so I don’t believe in that. I believe in democracy, I believe in being able to put your name forward, putting your name forward and, if you fail in putting your name forward, so be it, stand by it.

“But as a public rep [representative] I want the best people representing Galway and Galway Beef Plan. We have the largest herd of suckler cows in the country and we can’t even organise a meeting to elect people.

“What are we at? We’re the laughing stock of the country tonight,” Rabbitte concluded, shortly before the election was officially called off.

The meeting took place ahead of the second meeting of the Beef Market Taskforce at Agriculture House in Dublin today, Thursday, January 9.

While attempts had been made to change Beef Plan’s representatives at the meeting, it is understood that Enda Fingleton and Dermot O’Brien will continue to represent the farm organisation in an official capacity at today’s talks.

The highly-anticipated talks will see the country’s largest retailers – including: Tesco; Dunnes Stores; Musgraves; Lidl; Aldi – join all the farming stakeholders around the table for the first time.

Stay tuned to AgriLand for further developments on this story…