Thirty-six members of the IFA's National Liquid Milk Committee have been ordered to appear before the High Court in Dublin today to explain why they should not be jailed for allegedly flouting court injunctions preventing picketing at the premises of Natural Dairies Limited in Convoy, Co Donegal.
The committee includes farmer representatives from all over the country.
Natural Dairies, outside whose premises farmers have mounted a blockade since the early hours of Tuesday last, also got leave to have Mr Michael McHugh of Cranford, Letterkenny, the IFA County Development Officer for Co Donegal, come before the court today to explain why he should not be committed to prison for alleged breach of the High Court injunctions.
Granting leave, Mr Justice Smyth said he would sit at noon today to deal with the matter. All defendants will be asked to show cause why they should not be sent to jail.
Later yesterday, the Competition Authority was given leave to serve a motion for the attachment of nine other named persons for alleged breaches of the court order. That motion is returnable for Monday.
Applying for leave, Mr Denis McDonald SC, for the authority, said there appeared to he "a revolving picket" and it was hard to identify all those involved. Just after the authority's application, Mr Eoghan Fitzsimons SC. for the IFA, said his instructions were that the IFA was not organising the picket of the Convoy plant and had nothing to do with it. As far as the IFA was aware, the picket was being organised by individual farmers "who have taken the law into their ownhands".
Mr Fitzsimons said Mr McHugh was a development officer with the IFA and had visited a friend on the picket and bought a number of meals using an IFA cheque but this was not on the instructions of the IFA. He said the IFA Liquid MilkCommittee had nothing to do with the picket. It had 36 members who lived all over the country and it would be very difficult to have them before the court by noon today. He asked the judge to defer today's hearing or limit the numbers who had to attend.
After considering the matter, the judge said the position was that there was non-compliance with a court order. He would not vary or defer the orders he hadmade and would sit at noon today. If this meant bringing people before the court who had nothing to do with the matter, he would be greatly upset but wouldnot defer his orders.
Earlier, when making the Natural Dairies application, Mr John Gleeson, for the company, said that, on being informed of court injunctions issued earlier yesterday against the IFA and those participating in the blockade, Mr McHugh had said: "That's what I wanted to hear." He then added: "When will the gardai arrive?"
Mr Gleeson said it was quite clear from this response that court orders were not being taken seriously by Mr McHugh and others. Natural Dairies also yesterdaysecured an interim order restraining the IFA from watching, besetting or picketing within 500 yards of the Convoy dairy. Natural Dairies director MrJohn Molloy, in an affidavit, said the blockade had frozen his company's capacity to do business.
The position being taken by the protesters was that they were going to stay where they were until they received an undertaking that Natural Dairies wouldput pressure on Dunnes Stores to raise the price of its two-litre milk carton from 86p to 95p.
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