A Minister of State has criticised the failure of a meat plant, which closed last week in Kilkenny with the loss of 40 jobs, to inform its suppliers of its intentions.
Kilkenny-based TD John McGuinness said Slaney Meats Ltd had not informed its farmer customers that it was closing the plant at Freshford.
He said the closure would result in the loss of 40 jobs and would create difficulties for the farmers who had supplied over 35,000 cattle to the plant annually.
"The company should have informed everyone involved. They did not even send out a letter to the farmers," he said.
Attempts to contact the company yesterday to answer the criticism were unsuccessful.
The Minister, in whose constituency the plant is based, said he had convened a meeting between the company and the farmers, in his offices for today.
He said the closure of the plant as part of a rationalisation of the meat industry part-funded by the Government raised a number of issues, including that of a loss of competition in the market.
His understanding was that the company had offered the farmers the facility of bringing their cattle to the Freshford facility where the company would transfer to other plants for processing.
The closure of the plant sparked a protest meeting of farmers last week in Freshford which was organised by the Irish Farmers' Association.
At that meeting, serious concern was expressed about the closure of the plant, which processed 35,000 cattle last year from local suppliers, and its implications in terms of the removal of price competition for cattle.
An IFA statement said strong anger was expressed by farmers at the meeting.
It said that Mr McGuinness gave a strong commitment to the meeting that Government funding would not be used to reduce competition in the meat trade.