Against the background of a boycott of meat plants by farmers from Monday next over who pays rendering charges, all parties to the dispute will meet in Dublin later today.
The initiative towards a possible settlement of the dispute came late last evening when the Irish Farmers Association announced it had asked other farm organisations, processors, butchers and renderers to attend a meeting today.
It said it had called the meeting to address the impact of Government cuts on meat and bonemeal disposal, the meat-processing sector and producers.
On Tuesday night last livestock farmers decided they would not supply the meat factories with stock from next Monday until they received a viable price of €2.52/kg.
"Winter finishers are facing financial ruin unless cattle prices are restored to a minimum level of €2.52/kg (90p/lb) for R grades and €2.41/kg (86p/lb) for O grades," Mr John Dillon, president of the IFA, said.
He said farmers at the meeting in Abbeyleix were furious with the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Joe Walsh, and the Government over the decision to impose an additional €70 million in cuts on the livestock sector at a time when farm incomes were in real trouble.
The meeting came as some plants were forced to close down because there was no rendering facility available.
However, two of the biggest processors, AIBP and Kepak, which have their own rendering facilities, continued to operate as normal during the week.
Yesterday, the Federation of Irish Renderers said it would be taking part in the IFA-arranged talks today but its members could not continue to operate after Monday.
It denied a Department of Agriculture and Food claim that it could not continue to subsidise rendering, storage and disposal by the renderers because of EU regulations, which forbid national subsidies.
But Mr David McDowell of the federation said the EU had told his organisation that a 50 per cent subsidy for the disposal of meat and bonemeal could be paid until the end of 2003.