Fianna Fáil Senator in Clare, Timmy Dooley, has called for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) to intervene in the ongoing dispute between knackeries and rendering plants that is having severe negative impacts on farmers.
Knackery collection services and renderers have been striking across the country since December 1st, leaving farmers as the victims.
Senator Dooley said: “We now have a situation where, due to an increase in costs for rendering services, all four rendering plants in Ireland have banded together and downed tools, effectively holding the state and farmers to ransom. Rendering is the most environmentally sound way to manage bio-waste. Perishable material produced by agriculture, meat processing, the food industry and the catering industry is recycled and turned into a high-value product used by industry and energy production.
"With rendering plants now refusing to take carcasses, farmers have been left as the victims with no direction on how to manage fallen animals and carcasses. The CCPC must urgently intervene in this dispute and bring together rendering plants, knackeries, farmers associations and the Department to find a solution.
"This has now gone too far, with farmers being left in extreme difficulty while knackeries are full and we face into the winter period where the potential is there for even more farm animals to die. A solution must be found."
-ENDS-