The newly elected president of the Irish Farmers Association, Mr John Dillon, yesterday walked out of one of the first negotiating meetings he has had with the Department of Agriculture since taking office last month.
Following a breakdown in talks with Department officials, Mr Dillon said the Department was impeding the independence of the on-farm live valuation process in the animal disease eradication programmes. The basis of the scheme agreed in the PPF was to provide a panel of independent, professional livestock valuers with the competence to value stock equivalent to similar stock in the open market, he said. He called on the Minister to intervene.
