Glanbia told IFA of looming judicial review late last year

Glanbia informed IFA about the judicial review being initiated by An Taisce at a meeting last November, the association has confirmed.

In a statement on the matter, IFA stated that: “At that meeting, Glanbia was clear that they preferred to deal with the matter behind the scenes. IFA respected that position.” 

Meanwhile, the statement added that, at a meeting with IFA this week “Glanbia revised this position and rightly called out An Taisce for their reprehensible actions.”

The update comes as the farm lobby group mounts pressure on Government and Glanbia to protect milk suppliers who will be impacted by processor’s new peak milk supply policy – a sudden policy change that the processor has proposed due to the planning delays for its proposed new €140m cheese plant in Belview, Co. Kilkenny.

Speaking after a special meeting of the IFA National Dairy Committee, IFA President Tim Cullinan said: “A core principle of the Glanbia Milk Supply Agreement is that all the farmers milk will be purchased at the price set by the Glanbia Ireland board.

"Saying that a proportion of milk will not be purchased, or will be purchased at a penalised price, due to no fault of the farmer, is not consistent with the agreement.

“The processing capacity issue must be dealt with on a voluntary basis in full co-operation with individual farmers.

"In this regard, the proposals around the voluntary retirement scheme and the voluntary milk reduction scheme should be expanded and funded by Glanbia Ireland to try and address the problem.

“Glanbia must be prepared to accept reduced profits for the next three years to fund some of these voluntary measures,” said Mr Cullinan.

New Entrants

IFA national dairy chairman Stephen Arthur said that up until recently Glanbia were "actively encouraging” expansion and canvassing for new entrants.

“While farmers are rightly raging with An Taisce and frustrated with the planning process, it’s wrong that individual farmers are the ones forced to carry the can.

"To expect farmers to adjust their calving patterns and at such short notice is just unrealistic.”

While Mr Arthur acknowledged the efforts Glanbia has made to address the concerns of farmers by making changes to their proposals, he added that “they must go further - no farmer can have their livelihood put at risk”.

“It is outrageous that An Taisce, an unelected elite, would seek to damage the livelihoods of farm families through spurious planning objections.

“The Government must change our planning process to tighten up the basis on which planning objections can be made, and to limit the number of appeal avenues open to people. The current system is doing untold damage and is a crank’s charter,” Mr Arthur concluded.

Judicial review

Last month, a High Court case commenced between Glanbia Ireland and An Taisce over proposed plans to build a €140m continental cheese plant in Belview, Co. Kilkenny.

An Taisce pursued the judicial review against the decision of An Bord Pleanala to grant planning permission for the project – a joint venture between Glanbia and Dutch dairy processor Royal A-Ware – as the the Irish National Trust contends that its concerns regarding the environmental impact of the proposed plant were “disregarded” in the process.

The outcome of the judicial review is expected this summer.

Online Editors