Beef Plan Movement members voted no confidence and to remove co-chairs Hugh Doyle and Eamon Corley from their positions at an EGM held by the national committee in Portlaoise.

This adds a further layer of complexity to the recent turmoil that has dogged the organisation, where a power struggle has emerged between the co-chairs and the national committee with each side dismissing the decisions of the other.

Up to 150 members attended the five-hour meeting, with members of the national committee taking to the floor to explain their side of recent events.

Corley had issued a press release stating that the EGM was illegitimate and entreated members to engage with them at a separate national AGM in March. However, the national committee proceeded with its own EGM in Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise.

It drives a further wedge between the two founding members of Beef Plan and the national committee.

Silage testers

Vice-chair of the western Beef Plan David Whelehan raised his concerns regarding a 21-member WhatsApp group called Silage Testers.

His criticism of the co-chairs was backed by assertions from the western chair Eoin Donnelly, who was greeted with a round of applause when he took to the floor.

Donnelly told the crowd that he felt the organisation was being “hamstrung” since communication via WhatsApp had been closed off to members.

He also addressed screenshots shown on a presentation slide to the crowd from the Silage Testers discussion which made specific reference to preventing his election to the Beef Plan.

“I don’t know what they’re afraid of. Are they afraid I’ll win? Are they afraid I’ll tell the truth?” he asked the crowd, who answered loudly in the affirmative.

Whelehan said that 15 counties had now put forward motions of no-confidence in the co-chairs.

“Members of ‘silage testers’ are discrediting the organisation and have no place in Beef Plan going forward,” he asserted.

A vote was passed to “temporarily suspend pending investigation” members of the Silage Testers WhatsApp group – that group includes Hugh Doyle and Eamon Corley.

Member concerns

A number of members took to the floor to voice their concern over the ongoing turmoil and the damage it had done to Beef Plan.

“Part of the attraction of the Beef Plan was that a lot of strange things had been going on in the IFA,” said Tim O’Sullivan from Kerry. “We have certainly far exceeded the IFA in our ability to self-destruct.”

He wanted to know if Eamon Corley held the rights to Beef Plan.

Enda Fingleton, who is a director of Beef Plan, said that in his view, Beef Plan “belonged” to the members.

He also dismissed rumours that had asserted that his family owned a building in Portlaoise that had been suggested as an office space for the organisation.

Another farmer from Laois said that he was “concerned” farmers would be getting more “more confused”.

He said Beef Plan had had the capacity to be a “fantastic organisation” but he felt that had now been spoiled.

Committee support

Despite concerns, the committee received an overwhelming vote of confidence from members.

After a lengthy explanation of the rules of elections by Donnelly, the crowd voted on a motion to remove Eamon Corley and Hugh Doyle as co-chairs.

One of the rules explicitly laid down that elections had to be run on a private ballot basis after concerns were raised by a member from Clare who said the recently elected chair had been influencing votes during the voting process.

In response Donnelly agreed it should be a private ballot and said: “We are not back in penal times with a landlord looking over your shoulder.”

However, major concerns were raised by members with the time frame of 21 days for planned county elections proposed for 14 and 15 February, the same day as elections had been proposed by Corley and Doyle.

Acting chair Michael Foley said he didn’t want to “rush into something that wasn’t right” and asked that the national committee be given time to come up with a solution and then share it with the members.

We’ll only confuse the electorate

Donnelly expressed his fears that Corley would elect a new national committee on those dates if the current national committee did not hold elections on the same day.

“We can’t change those dates now or we’ll only confuse the electorate,” Donnelly said.

He said if Eamon Corley was elected by the members of Meath as chair then they would accept that as long as the election was “fair and transparent”.

“There are deep wounds that need to be healed,” he said.

Clash of opinions

Sunday’s meeting was “not a recognised Beef Plan meeting and serves no purpose but to further divide the organisation”, a statement from Eamon Corley on behalf of “the newly elected county chairpersons” said.

This committee aims to embark on a new nationwide series of meetings as soon as the AGMs are complete.

“The purpose is to inform members of the new structure in Beef Plan. The meetings will also outline plans to design proper membership packages which will provide real savings for farmers as well as putting structures in place to achieve the highest possible prices for cattle.

“The new national committee will also design a policy document with the help from members' suggestions which will outline our policy areas including CAP, unfair trading practices, the Beef Task Force and discussing new ways of promoting Irish beef,” it said.