The IFA has met Meat Industry Ireland (MII) to set out sheep farmers’ demands to have electronic payment options made available to them.

Sheep factories must provide the option for farmers to receive payment electronically, according to the IFA.

Decline in rural services and closure of bank branches in towns across the country has made it more difficult for farmers to lodge cheques, said IFA sheep chair Seán Dennehy.

He called on factories to “come forward with commitments on implementation within reasonable timeframes” to address the issue.

No progress to date

Dennehy said the IFA met with MII to set out sheep farmers’ demands to have electronic payment options made available instead of solely through postal cheque.

However, he said to date no lamb processing factories are providing this service to farmers.

“Members of the IFA sheep committee contacted all of the sheep factories in the past few days.

“While some are more positively disposed to providing the service, none are offering the facility despite the IFA raising this issue with their representative body earlier this year.”

Not acceptable

Dennehy said the lack of movement on the matter is “not acceptable” and called on all sheep processing factories to put the option in place.

He said he will be formally writing to all of sheep-processing factories setting out the need to provide electronic payment options and seeking a realistic timeframe to have this service for farmers.

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