Some 50 farmers staged a sit-down protest in the Bank of Ireland offices in Tralee yesterday over what they say is the bank's refusal to make any offer to 300 farmer creditors owed €3.5 million from the collapsed Tralee Beef & Lamb meat company.
The Irish Farmers' Association Munster vice president, Mr Donal Kelly, said farmers believed Bank of Ireland has a moral obligation to the creditors.
"The bank have refused point blank to make any offer to the farmers who have encountered severe financial hardship over the collapse of Tralee Beef & Lamb. Farmers will not allow Bank of Ireland to walk away from their responsibilities towards the 300 farmer creditors."
A Bank of Ireland spokesperson strongly rejected the IFA's claim that the bank was responsible to the creditor farmers and said the bank made its position clear to the farmer creditors from the outset.
"While we are sympathetic to their plight, we have no responsibility to the farmer creditors or any other creditors. We did not appoint the receiver."
The spokesperson said the bank had a series of meetings with the farmer creditors. "The most recent meeting was on Wednesday and what we did say on that occasion to farmer creditors who are our customers is that we would meet them on an individual basis and would help them with some banking arrangements. But so far, they haven't responded."