The Irish Pedigree Breeders Council, representing all breed societies, wishes to inform you that following our own meeting on Monday 3 March, we will not be attending the stakeholders forum this Wednesday. Why are we abstaining from attendance? We have attended in good faith through 13 months of forum meetings. For the first six meetings there is no record of the majority of points raised by our members. While we welcome that the forum has finally agreed to deliver minute-keeping as a prerequisite, the outcome is still not satisfactory to us.

It was acknowledged at the last forum that the initial minutes recorded amassed to 28 pages. While we appreciate that editing is required, we note numerous omissions of key points raised by our members that are not recorded in the minutes. It now stands on public record that those points were never even raised or discussed. In future meetings, we believe the only way to resolve this is to appoint a professional minute-keeper that is fully independent of all parties in the room, as is standard practice in business worldwide. Much of the discontent centres around a lack of respect shown by ICBF, Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture towards our contribution to the forum. ICBF/Teagasc are not taking our views on board, which highlight glaring mistakes and problems with the model. The forum has developed into a teacher and student exercise, where the presenters continue to justify the model while being incapable of admitting that serious changes are required.

The fact that the model no longer reflects the market returns of livestock is deeply regrettable. Until our concerns are taken seriously and there is a commitment made to making significant changes to the model, continuing with the forum in its current format is a complete waste of everybody’s time. It was agreed at previous meetings that slides of upcoming stakeholders meetings would be sent well in advance. This agreement has not been delivered. Again, this is a fundamental issue that needs to be delivered upon. We are requesting that whatever presentations are planned for this Wednesday are sent to us now for review.

Respect goes a long way in relationships. It has become clear over the last 13 months that the contribution of our members is seen as an irritant and that ICBF and Teagasc appear to have no intention of admitting fault with their model and intend to push though without changing course. This is simply unacceptable.

Our livelihoods have been destroyed through the changes made in November 2023. If the model accurately reflected the value of livestock, we would have no quarrel. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. We stand united as a group, we have entered this forum in good faith. Until such time as this process commits to changing the terms of engagement and ICBF and Teagasc start to respect our viewpoints, there is little point in further meetings. We are reasonable people. We are not shutting the door on future forum meetings. However, to move forward from this point, this relationship is going to have to become a lot more professional. Our livelihoods and the integrity of our herdbooks are at stake. It’s about time ICBF and Teagasc recognised the full impact their fundamentally flawed system is having on the national herd.