The Irish Farmers' Association last night reacted angrily to a leaked memo sugesting that it had privately accepted the need to close Carlow sugar factory.
The Carlow Nationalist published a leaked memo sent to Dr Seán Brady, chief executive of Irish Sugar, by Keating and Associates, the Dublin PR company handling the closure on behalf of the company. The memo was sent on Monday last from Dublin by Mr Pat Keating seeking clearance of a statement for issue to the media.
However, it also contained observations on the media and other reaction to the closure from Mr Keating, who wrote that considerations such as beet price and the future of the industry seemed to be to the fore in the minds of farmers, who privately accepted the need for closure.
Last night, the IFA, which is to hold a protest meeting in Carlow on Tuesday next to oppose the closure, said "PR stunts by Greencore would not get them off the hook for closing the Carlow factory".
Mr John Kehoe, the chairman of Co Carlow IFA, totally rejected the claims made in the memo, saying they were "blatantly untrue and unsubstantiated.
"Farmers, workers and the community can see through the spin and propaganda coming from Greencore," he said.
Last night, Mr Keating said the observations were private opinions, which he believed to be true, put forward by him to his client.