The west Cork county executive is holding the emergency meeting in the wake of the decision by IFA president Eddie Downey to step aside and allow deputy president Tim O’Leary to take up his functions. This is to allow the IFA’s former chief economist Con Lucey return to carry out a review of the association.

IFA west Cork chair Richard Connell confirmed that the decisions made at the county executive meeting will be brought forward to the IFA national executive meeting in Dublin on Wednesday morning.

“Our officers met on Sunday [and] there was pretty much a total and unanimous belief in the need to hold our organisation together,” Connell told the Irish Farmers Journal on Tuesday.

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“We thought [IFA president Eddie Downey stepping back from his position] would have settled things but there is an unbelievable anger on the ground ... after what happened [on Monday night]. There are questions that need to be answered and I hope that we have answers from the meeting. Whatever the outcome of the meeting, I will be bringing that decision to the executive meeting tomorrow,” Connell added.

The Galway county executive is also due to meet on Tuesday night, while Mayo IFA met on Monday and issued a letter calling for president Eddie Downey and four other senior representatives to resign.