Beef processor claim pickets having “negative impact”

Liffey Meats has appealed to protesters to lift the pickets at its factory gates. The beef processor said the action by farmers is having a wide ranging effect.

A spokesperson for Liffey Meats, said the call came “in the interest of everyone concerned”. They said: “We have over 500 employees anxiously waiting to return to work, many of our 10,000 farmer suppliers who want to sell their cattle and over 400 customers throughout Europe and Ireland who are waiting on their delivery of Irish beef.”

Liffey Meats claim the protests are hitting many businesses: “These blockades are having a hugely negative impact both locally and in the surrounding communities, and a lot of local businesses and suppliers to our business are suffering as a result. We are inundated with calls around the clock, from farmers who want to sell their cattle and international customers looking for deliveries.”

“At the same time, we are also receiving calls from concerned local and national suppliers to our business who themselves employ from five to six people, to those who have a couple of hundred, who rely on our operations to keep them in business,” the statement by the processor maintained.

The company pointed the blame directly at the other parties in the dispute: “It is extremely disappointing that despite agreements reached in good faith with all farming organisations last weekend, we have seen no evidence that blockades at our plants are set to cease. We would appeal to the protesters to lift the blockades in the interest of all concerned and give the agreement a chance to work. This would allow us get the business moving again.”