The Department of Agriculture has intervened to break the impasse between knackery operators and rendering plants, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.

Senior Department officials met with both sides of the dispute, which had seen dead animals piling up in animal collectors’ yards and BSE testing stopped for a time.

It is understood that talks regarding the Department’s subsidisation of the rendering costs of some animal material, which were due to take place in early 2024, may have been brought forward.

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The Animal Collectors Association (ACA) did not respond to Irish Farmers Journal queries on Saturday.

However, individual knackery operators have told the Irish Farmers Journal that they were able to recommence delivery of carcases to rendering plants on Friday. It is also understood that BSE testing resumed in some knackery yards.

The dispute between ACA members and rendering plants was sparked by major hikes in the charges for rendering, in some cases by as much as 50%.

This in turn prompted the ACA to take the position that its members could not continue collecting animals on the basis that it was financially unviable for them.