The newly elected national committee of Beef Plan met on Monday morning (27 January) and has "reacted furiously to the holding of an unauthorised meeting in Portlaoise" on Sunday 26 January.

That meeting was organised by the previous national committee, now locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with the co-founders Eamon Corley and Hugh Doyle. They stood the original national committee down, with a round of elections scheduled to elect their replacements. To date, less thna a dozen have been held. Both now claim to be the legitimate national council of the organisation.

Statement

A statement following Monday's meeting states that "counties who didn’t hold their AGMs before or on the 15th of January 2020 now have no county committees or representative at national level".

The statement continues that the "national committee had no legal standing, as they were not elected under the constitution". They say these rules were agreed with the four Beef Plan directors, two of whom are in each camp.

Commitment

The statement concludes that "Beef Plan has achieved so much since it was formed by the two founding members Hugh Doyle and Eamon Corley.

"This has almost been exclusively down to the commitment, hard work and support of the Beef Plan membership. Now that official rules of governance have been put in place, Beef Plan must move forward and get back to representing farmers interests.

"2020 will be a definitive year for agriculture in Ireland with a new government, CAP negotiations, Brexit and the continuation of the beef task force."