Michael Comiskey (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegation for its presentation. One the face of it one would almost imagine there was no problem, yet a number of farmers are protesting up the street today. At our meetings with farmers in the past month or six weeks there has been anger at the way they have been treated, particularly the bull beef producers. They are suffering serious cuts and in some cases do not even get their animals slaughtered. That is the reason we are here and the reason we are asking all the questions. What is wrong with our neighbour, Britain, where we sent all our all our cattle in the past, as we do not appear to get a fair deal there? The lesson to be learned is that we must have live exports. We just cannot depend on the factories in Ireland, for whom the product is produced, and have to take a serious cut.

A question that has already been asked is how much beef is being imported. We hear stories about beef being imported and being held in storage. When needed it is taken out and depresses the market further. In the past couple of years when Ireland was in recession, the farmers were the people who were taking us out of it and getting the country back on its feet. Of all the jobs created, some 26,000 were in the agriculture sector, some of which would be in the meat and food industry. That is good and we all subscribe to that and push for its continuance. However, it is not fair that everybody along the line gets paid and the farmer takes what is left. What is the outlook for farmers? We do not want to continue to produce stock for which there is a bad price. What is the outlook for them into the future?