C&D Foods keep injunctions in place against two protestors connected to summer’s beef protests
Injunctions remain in place against two protestors dating back to the summer’s beef protests - and remain a stumbling block to any talks on resolving the impasse between farmers and processors.
Two protesters - Fine Gael councillor Paraic Brady and Colm Leonard - are subject to injunctions taken out by C&D Foods, and sources familiar with negotiations say there is a resolve among farmer representative bodies to hold off on talks until these legal threats are lifted.
The lifting of any legal threats by processors was a precondition of any meeting of the Beef Taskforce established with a view to ending the dispute over the price paid to farmers and other contentious marker conditions.
However while members of Meat Industry Ireland - the umbrella body representing the beef processors - dropped their legal threats, there has been no indication that the injunctions taken out by C&D Foods will be lifted.
C&D Foods was the subject of a takeover from Larry Goodman’s ABP Food Group (ABP) earlier this year, when ABP bought out the remaining 15% of the company’s shares.
These were held by Philip Reynolds, son of the late Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, who founded the Longford company more than 40 years ago.
While ABP’s meat processing plants are members of MII, C&D Foods is a pet food manufacturer and therefore does not come under MII’s remit.
As such, while MII agreed its members would drop legal threats in a bid to get farmers to the negotiating table, C&D Foods is not bound by such an agreement.
C&D Foods declined to comment on the injunctions when contacted by the Irish Examiner today.
The speculated cause of the injunctions was a source of controversy on Tuesday when Agriculture Minister Michael Creed alluded to alleged death threats against C&D Foods staff.
Cllr Brady denied being responsible for any death threats and condemned any such actions. He said that while there is a mention of such a threat on the Garda Pulse system, no formal complaints have been made.
