The Minister for Agriculture has written an open letter pleading with protesting beef farmers to stop their blockades at some meat factories.
The letter comes after farming organisations and Meat Industry Ireland agreed on proposals at the weekend aimed at ending the dispute.
In his letter, Michael Creed says farmers voicers have been heard "loud and clear". He also says the agreement is a compromise and nobody got eveything they wanted from the weekend's talks.
However, he says farmers who simply want a price increase have to accept that such an increase was not legally on the table at the talks.
He goes on to ask farmers to give the agreement a chance and to stop their protests at meat factory gates.
The owners of the Meadow Meats Factory in Co Laois say they can't rule out the clousure of the plant because of an ongoing blockade by a small number of protestors.
Staff they say were temporarily laid off last week but the action could become permanent because the blockades have called into question the long term viability of the business
