Farmers turned away as vets revolt in factories

Farmers were turned away from factories this week when some vets downed tools on the factory line.

Those worst-affected factories were ABP Clones, Moyvalley Meats in Kildare, Irish Country Meats in Navan, Rosderra in Edenderry and Dunbia in Slane.

There were no cattle at all slaughtered at ABP’s plant in Clones, Co Monaghan, on Wednesday.

Vets at Moyvalley Meats clocked out at noon on Monday and Tuesday, reducing cattle and sheep throughput by 20%. ICM Navan saw its sheep kill reduced by 50% to 75% in the first half of the week.

Other plants were not as directly hit, but work-to-rule by vets is stopping them from extending shifts or calling a replacement if an inspector fails to show up for work.

The dispute between temporary veterinary inspectors and the Department of Agriculture has created a backlog of hundreds of cattle and sheep and many more pigs to be slaughtered this week.

There was already an overhang of fit pigs waiting to be slaughtered, due to weak markets.

Pig processors are warning farmers the overhang will be 8,000 pigs by the end of this week.

IFA president Joe Healy said: “After farmers enduring such a difficult year and prices on the floor, it is outrageous that vets are holding farmers to ransom in their row with the Department.”

Industrial action by the Temporary Veterinary Inspectors (TVIs) has been ongoing since the end of June, but this week is an escalation of the problem.

The chief executive of Veterinary Ireland, Finbarr Murphy, denied the action taken was targeted “but it is fair to say that the shortage is more acute in some factories. Vets have been facilitating the Department up to now by going beyond their contracted requirements.”

Caught in the middle

While farmers and processors are not involved in the dispute, they are caught in the middle. Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has called for the work-to-rule to be halted.

“Some plants are facing significant disruption to operations, which is impacting on processing throughput and animal intake and risking supplies to customers at a critical time of year,” MII said.

The Department of Agriculture and Veterinary Ireland have been negotiating for some time to resolve the dispute. It is understood an agreement was reached in November but was subsequently blocked by the Exchequer.

“In the course of these confidential discussions, substantial progress has been made overall, with some issues of detail and process requiring finalisation,” the Department said.

Veterinary Ireland said that the key issue is a shortage of vets in the system due to a moratorium on recruitment.

It estimates that there were 800 active vets on the TVI panel in 2011, but fewer than 650 now.