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Irish Co-operative Organisation Society Ltd.

ICOS

The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society represents and promotes commercial cooperative businesses in Ireland.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Maria Walsh (Member of the European Parliament)

2 Dec 2025 · Agricultural Policy

Meeting with Maria Walsh (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Nov 2025 · Agricultural Policy

Meeting with Michael McGrath (Commissioner) and

15 Jul 2025 · Exchange of views on issues related to environmental sustainability and food security

Meeting with Billy Kelleher (Member of the European Parliament)

15 Jul 2025 · CAP, nitrates regulation and developments in farming

Meeting with Cynthia Ní Mhurchú (Member of the European Parliament)

15 Jul 2025 · Meeting with ICOS Delegation

Meeting with Cynthia Ní Mhurchú (Member of the European Parliament) and Irish Farmers' Association

24 Jun 2025 · Meeting with Farming Organisations

Meeting with Maria Walsh (Member of the European Parliament) and ALDI SÜD Dienstleistungs-SE & Co. oHG

24 Apr 2025 · Agricultural policy

Irish dairy co-ops urge EU to maintain flexible supply contracts

6 Mar 2025
Topic — Amending regulations to improve the position of farmers in the food supply chain.
Message — The organization urges the EU to safeguard the co-operative model and avoid imposing mandatory written contracts. They argue that member states should retain the flexibility to decide if such contracts are necessary and avoid unnecessary mediation requirements.123
Why — This would prevent new administrative burdens and protect the existing producer-owned business structure.45
Impact — EU efforts to create a uniform, transparent agricultural market across all member states are weakened.6
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Meeting with Maria Walsh (Member of the European Parliament)

19 Feb 2025 · CAP

Meeting with Seán Kelly (Member of the European Parliament)

15 Oct 2024 · Agricultural priorities in Ireland

Meeting with Nina Carberry (Member of the European Parliament) and Irish Farmers' Association

15 Oct 2024 · Agricultural Priorities for 2024-2029

Meeting with Mairead McGuinness (Commissioner) and

15 Oct 2024 · Nitrates derogation and future of farming

Meeting with Mairead McGuinness (Commissioner) and

1 Oct 2024 · Current challenges for Irish agriculture

Meeting with Billy Kelleher (Member of the European Parliament)

10 Oct 2023 · Nitrates Directive

Response to Animal welfare labelling for food

23 Aug 2021

The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) is the umbrella body for over 130 co-operatives in Ireland – including the Irish dairy processing & milk purchasing co-operatives, livestock marts and other rural based enterprises, such as breeding societies, animal health and AI societies – whose associated businesses have a combined turnover in the region of €14 billion, with some 150,000 individual members, employing 12,000 people in Ireland, and a further 24,000 people overseas. As our members are involved in the rearing, trading and exporting of livestock, ICOS is pleased to provide its feedback on the inception impact assessment by the European Commission on the revision of EU Legislation on animal welfare, which makes a number of assertations and suggested policy options for the future of these activities. You will find our comments in the document attached.
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Response to Revision of Non-Financial Reporting Directive

14 Jul 2021

ICOS is the umbrella body for over 130 co-operatives in Ireland – including Irish dairy processing and milk purchasing co-operatives, livestock marts and other rural based enterprises – whose associated businesses have a combined turnover in the region of €14 billion, with some 150,000 individual members, employing 12,000 people in Ireland, and a further 24,000 people overseas. These cooperatives are both SME’s and larger enterprises, but all have similar governance structures. They are also not publicly listed, although in two specific cases the co-operative features within a group structure, which is in turn publicly listed. Co-operatives are based on the ethical values of honesty, openness and social responsibility and as an organisation we firmly believe in the importance of enterprises communicating their environmental, governance and social credentials. We therefore welcome this proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (amending the Non-Financial Reporting Directive) and the opportunity to comment on a number of priorities stemming from the proposal, which we have outlined in the attached document.
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Response to Setting of nutrient profiles

3 Feb 2021

ICOS is the umbrella body for over 130 co-operatives in Ireland – including the Irish dairy processing and milk purchasing co-operatives, livestock marts and other rural based enterprises, such as breed societies, animal health and AI societies – whose associated businesses have a combined turnover in the region of €14 billion, with some 150,000 individual members, employing 12,000 people in Ireland, and a further 24,000 people overseas. We welcome this opportunity to provide feedback on the European Commission inception impact assessment on the EU regulation related to the provision of food information to consumers, which is a central objective of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy. ICOS supports the development of new and innovative policy options to encourage the consumption of healthy and sustainable foods and reduce food waste. We outline our position in the document attached on how these objectives can be applied while safeguarding the EU Single Market and free movement of goods and taking an evidence-based approach.
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Irish dairy co-ops urge fairer methane accounting rules

4 Aug 2020
Topic — The EU is developing a strategy to reduce methane emissions across key sectors.
Message — ICOS requests a fairer way to calculate methane by recognizing its short lifespan. They argue that emissions reduction should not be achieved by lowering food production. The group calls for EU investment in feed additives and anaerobic digestion technologies.123
Why — These proposals allow Irish farmers to maintain production levels and secure subsidies.45
Impact — Climate advocacy groups lose if production levels remain high despite warming concerns.6
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Irish cooperatives urge EU to protect live animal exports

29 Jul 2020
Topic — The Commission is evaluating the effectiveness of current EU animal welfare legislation.
Message — ICOS calls for full and equal implementation of existing standards across the single market. They argue that sustainability schemes and welfare labeling should remain strictly voluntary. Existing transport provisions must be maintained to support essential live animal exports.123
Why — Preserving existing transport rules protects the viability of Ireland's livestock export market.4
Impact — Global exporters would face increased costs to align production with EU standards.5
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Response to Farm to Fork Strategy

16 Mar 2020

The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) is pleased to provide its feedback on the roadmap for the new Farm to Fork Strategy on Sustainable Food, in the document attached. ICOS is the umbrella body for over 130 co-operatives in Ireland – including the Irish dairy processing & milk purchasing co-operatives, livestock marts and other rural based enterprises – whose associated businesses have a combined turnover in the region of €14 billion, with some 150,000 individual members, employing 12,000 people in Ireland, and a further 24,000 people overseas.
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Irish co-operatives reject costly mandatory cattle TB testing

1 Jul 2019
Topic — Commission rules on animal disease notification, surveillance, and disease-free status certification.
Message — ICOS strongly calls for a revision regarding 30-day pre-movement testing. This requirement lacks sufficient scientific basis and should be removed from the regulation.12
Why — Preventing these rules avoids a twenty million euro annual cost burden.34
Impact — Livestock marts and farmers would suffer from reduced market competition.5
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Response to Enhancing Market transparency in the agri-food chain

19 Jun 2019

ICOS welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on this draft regulation, which is included in the document attached.
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Meeting with Tom Tynan (Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan)

14 Jun 2018 · Business discussion

Meeting with Peter Wehrheim (Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan), Tom Tynan (Cabinet of Commissioner Phil Hogan)

11 Apr 2018 · Climate, dairy sector in Ireland

Meeting with Markus Schulte (Cabinet of Vice-President Günther Oettinger)

22 Feb 2018 · MFF, CAP

Response to Initiative to improve the Food Supply Chain

22 Aug 2017

ICOS welcomes this initiative by the European Commission to improve the functioning of the food supply chain. Farmer-owned cooperatives play an important role in this supply chain- they integrate the roles of the producer, processor, marketer to add value and provide security for farmers. ICOS therefore supports action being taken which will strengthen the position of farmers and their cooperatives and improve price transparency, while highlighting that this action should respect the hugely positive role of cooperatives in providing balance to the food supply chain. Unfair Trading Practices The vast majority of Irish cooperatives, across all sectors, are small or medium sized. This puts them at a disadvantage to downstream highly-concentrated businesses in the retail sector. As a result, they are often exposed to unfair and sometimes abusive trading practices, as is the case across the entire EU. ICOS therefore supports this EU initiative to combat unfair trading practices (UTPs) and ensure a fair and equitable food supply chain, that provides cooperatives with a level playing field and will allow them to develop their business activities for the benefit of their members. We believe that a purely voluntary approach, such as the Supply Chain Initiative, is not sufficiently effective. We need a system which combines this voluntary code with a robust independent enforcement system that can receive and act upon anonymous complaints on abuses in market power, and address them through the use of sanctions. Additionally, with many Irish cooperatives exporting to other EU countries and beyond, the current varied national legislation and mechanisms to address UPTs provide inadequate enforcement and are a leading to a fragmented internal market. We therefore believe that the third policy option outlined in the inception impact assessment is the most fitting and effective solution to protect the single market and adequadely addressing the issue. Market Transparency ICOS very much supports the proposed increase in market transparency, for which we have been calling, for a number of years. Greater market transparency can provide many benefits for all operators in the supply chain, ensuring greater bargaining power for producers, but also helping to combat market volatility. Greater market price transparency would enable the functioning of a European Futures Market which would allow farmers and their cooperatives to either lock-in or hedge a prices, for a least a portion of their supply and therefore ensure a better and more stable price for their produce. However in order to achieve the necessary degree of market transparency, increased standardisation is needed across Member States as regards to the definition, collection, reporting and presentation of data. The focus must also be on improving transparency across the entire food supply chain, not just on processor level, but particularly within the distribution and retail stages and also on ensuring the reliability of the data. Producer Cooperation ICOS welcomes the initiative for provide clarity on producer cooperation under EU competition law within the context of the future CAP policy reform. Cooperatives are the most effective, socially responsible and sustainable form of producer organisation. They are the most effective way for producers to increase their bargaining power and generate greater value from the supply chain. We therefore reaffirm the necessity for agri-cooperatives and other producer organisations with an economic activity to receive a derogation from EU competition law and reiterate our call for the future CAP policy to emphasise and actively promote the position of farmer owned co-operatives in Europe. Additionally we call for any new horizontal rules or proposals under this initiative to respect the role and functioning of these farmer-owned cooperatives.
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Meeting with Phil Hogan (Commissioner)

24 Jun 2016 · Climate Change

Meeting with Phil Hogan (Commissioner)

3 Nov 2015 · Address ICOS Conference

Meeting with Phil Hogan (Commissioner)

1 Sept 2015 · Agriculture Affairs

Meeting with Marco Valletta (Cabinet of Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis)

29 Jun 2015 · Medicated Feed and Veterinary Medicines