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No date has been set for the beef taskforce to reconvene after the first meeting was abandoned due to protests outside the Department of Agriculture on Monday.
Approximately 40 people staged a protest outside the Department before 10am on Monday and prevented Meat Industry Ireland (MII) representatives from entering the building.
The protest took place as a result of a number of injunctions still held against protesters who picketed C&D Foods, a pet food company in Longford, during the beef protests.
The protesters were armed with signs which said “Free the three”, “We haven’t gone away Larry” and “Internment is long gone”.
My department doesn’t have the leverage that has been alleged to be able to waive these away. That’s an issue for the company themselves to make
Part of the terms of the beef agreement was that all legal proceedings against farmers by meat processors would be dropped.
Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed told the Dáil on Tuesday that C&D Foods, which is owned by Larry Goodman’s ABP, is a legal entity outside the remit of MII and was not covered under the terms of the agreement. “My department doesn’t have the leverage that has been alleged to be able to waive these away. That’s an issue for the company themselves to make,” Minister Creed said, adding that he had made contact with ABP on the issue.
Minister Creed said protesters had engaged in behaviour outside acceptable norms and “intimidatory tactics” had been used.
An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar weighed in on the debate on Wednesday saying he was “disappointed” by farmer protests that had disrupted the first beef taskforce meeting. “I don’t think that’s the way to go forward. Aggression and violence is never justified,” he said.
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