Friday, March 29, 2024
3.4 C
Galway
HomeBeefBeef Plan county elections deferred – national committee
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Beef Plan county elections deferred – national committee

The Beef Plan Movement’s national committee has issued a statement outlining that “all further county elections have been deferred until after its EGM”.

The organisation’s extraordinary general meeting will take place on January 26th at Killeshin Hotel, Portlaoise, Co. Laois at 2pm.

“According to the rules of governance, the national committee of Beef Plan Movement has responsibility for national elections.”

“Beef Plan has said that in order to reconcile internal matters, the organisation has no option but to currently defer all county election until discussions and the organisations EGM has taken place.”

“The date for national elections to resume will be announced at the organisation’s EGM.” the statement added.

Committee ‘stood down’

In a statement to this publication on Sunday, January 4th, Hugh Doyle, outlined that “the volunteer national committees relied upon this far and spokespeople for Beef Plan Movement have been stood down and no longer have the authority to conduct any matters on behalf of the organisation”.

Second statement

Hugh Doyle and Eamon Corley issued another statement yesterday (Thursday, January 9th), as can be read here.

They said it is “clearly obvious” that there is a strong divide between the “opposing factions” within the Beef Plan Movement.

In this statement, they outlined that a temporary national committee was put together “very informally which was only to last until the end of August where one of the aims was to put a formal structure in place”. 

“This didn’t happen and what emerged was a divide and a struggle to take over power. The bigger picture was lost and representation of the needs of the grassroots members disappeared.”

“In order to formalise the structure created, county AGMs were a priority.”

“An elected representative from each county AGM would go forward to form the national committee. Some of the county leaderships were diligent enough to arrange their respective AGMS, some weren’t.”

“It appeared an immediate plan of action was put in place to disrupt the election process. Such a process stifles the ability of the organisation to organise the national AGM and present the audited accounts to its members in line with its statutory duties.” the statement added. 

They explained that the first AGM was held in Galway on Wednesday night (January 8th). “In an embarrassment to the Beef Plan Movement, the meeting ended in chaos.”

“It was taken over by a small organised mob of people mainly from outside the county. Its main aim was to disrupt the meeting.”

“They attended with their own microphones and took control by mob rule. It appeared blatantly obvious, they had no intention of respecting the autonomy of the Galway Committee to have their own discussion if necessary and organise their own AGM.”

The Galway leadership decided to abandon the meeting for health and safety reasons.

“It is hugely disappointing that members from Roscommon, Monaghan, Kerry and Kilkenny would travel to disrupt a Galway AGM. It is hugely disappointing that these people have forgotten the bigger picture and have brought Beef Plan Movement into disrepute.” 

There are a further number of AGMS to take place in the coming days, Hugh and Doyle explained.

“We hope that the mob rule element of Beef Plan Movement will show respect going forward, stay at home and allow the creation of an elected national committee from each county who can return to the bigger picture, the real business of Beef Plan, negotiation of a better deal for the farmer grass root members.”

“The creators of Beef Plan have no interest in mob rule.” the statement concluded. 

Further updates to follow

- Advertisment -

Most Popular