IFA seeks payment for beet growers

THE Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) believes there is an open and shut case for the payment of substantial compensation to sugar beet growers following the extinction of the Irish sugar industry.

On the eve of a ministerial announcement of EU compensation for the shutdown of the Irish sugar beet industry, IFA President Padraig Walshe said events of the past week proved the IFA case for compensation to be paid to beet growers.

Mr Walshe said it would be a scandal if developers, British investors and Greencore management were to be rewarded for asset stripping while the livelihoods of the country’s 3,700 beet growers were destroyed.