Eamon Corley and Hugh Doyle have issued a statement to advise the Beef Plan Movement’s national membership, that from the outset of their campaign, it was always their desire to create an organisation that represented farmers in an “open, transparent and democratic manner”.
They made the comment in response to what they described as very recent media reports of “disappointing and unjustifiable criticisms by members of the stood-down temporary national committees of the Beef Plan Movement”.
In order to represent farmers in an “open, transparent and democratic manner”, their statement added, rules of governance of the organisation were “painstakingly” drafted and agreed upon and signed by all the directors of Beef Plan Movement CLG.
“These rules create a pathway for the organisation to represent the views of all grassroots members equally and for the Beef Plan Movement to grow and develop where the leadership is accountable to the grassroots members and their actions are fully transparent.”
County AGMs
The rules of governance state that county AGMs must be completed by January 15th, 2020. The completion of the county AGMs will, Corley and Doyle added, allow for the formation of the first democratically elected National Committee under the rules of governance of the Beef Plan Movement.
“This national committee has been entrusted with all powers necessary to form National Policies and power to decide the future direction of the organisation.”
“Every paid-up member of the Beef Plan Movement has an equal opportunity to become a member of that national committee and we invite all members in each county to get involved to build upon and promote the great work achieved to date.”
“It is with regret and it is disappointing and unfortunate that some disgruntled members of the stood-down, temporary national committees persist in calling unofficial meetings to disrupt the current election process.”
“We acknowledge that it appears drastic to stand down these voluntary committees and it was unfortunate that we had to do so, but we feel it was completely necessary in order to ensure that there is no circulation of improper information at this critical time in the development of the Beef Plan Movement.”
Restore business
The joint national chairpersons of the Beef Plan Movement stated that in any event, this is a “very” temporary measure.
They said that when the county AGMs are complete on the January 15th next, the new national committee will be in a position to meet to restore the business of the organisation.
“It is an unfortunate and unnecessary distraction from the proper business of the Beef Plan Movement where our resources must be reapplied to proper representation for farmers.”
“We acknowledge the great work of all participating members of any Beef Plan Movement committee to date and we hope that the organisation can strengthen and build upon such good work in the coming year.”
“We look forward to working with each new county committee in the coming weeks.” the statement concluded.
