Pat O'Neill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That should have been clarified because this information will go on the record of the Houses. The figure of 320 for bull beef in England appears as if it is €320, which is less than £320. This should be changed before the information goes on the record.

Does the meat industry realise why there were thousands of farmers marching today? The industry is in crisis and there is no denying that at present. Farmers cannot get cattle killed. Mr. Healy is stating the kill of bull beef has increased to 6,000. One must remember, however, that the farmers have been waiting months to kill the animals. The problem is that the animals are now over the stipulated age and the farmers are receiving a depressed price for them.

If something comes out of this meeting today that can improve the lot of the primary producer, I will welcome it, but given what Deputy Ó Cuív raised and what ICOS and Deputy Heydon have mentioned, that the cut for which the farmer in Ireland is getting 20% less is still being sold in an English supermarket at the same price, the MII, as an organisation, will be accused of being in collusion with the large multiples.

On producing statistics, the MII states that we are the third highest for steer beef and heifer beef and the fifth highest for cow beef, or, maybe, I have it the other way around. If one takes the price of beef in the main markets in Europe, those of Italy, France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, the average price per kilo is €4.26. The graph in the MII's presentation shows figures from countries such as Poland, Romania and all the other new EU states which do not provide the traceability that Irish farmers provide. Irish farmers are producing a quality product that can be traced and that we can stand over on any world market and I do not agree with the MII assertion that our price is above the EU average. The EU average price that the MII is producing is from lower grade countries in terms of traceability and production. We have the highest quality animals in this country and yet our market is being depressed.

I do not accept their point that the Meat Industry Ireland did not encourage farmers to produce bull beef. I attended open meetings, meetings with factories and meetings with Teagasc where farmers, especially dairy farmers, were encouraged to produce bull beef, that this was where it was going to be. We are producing 100,000 more animals this year and, suddenly, we cannot kill them. Where is the industry going?

We constantly hear about new markets being opened. Where has the MII, as an organisation, gone to try to ensure when these markets have been opened up that our product is being sold into it? Has MII spent money to go to ensure that these markets are being pursued when the are being reopened? It is a long way to go to get something to Japan, but I was in Japan recently and I am aware that what is part of the fifth quarter is now going into Japan at a price nearly 1,000 times better than what we were getting two months ago in this country for it.

Returning to where farmers need advice, when the dairy sector was making changes in the way farmers would be paid and the product they wanted produced, farmers were given notice. Suddenly, at two or three months' notice, farmers are told anything over 16 months old is not wanted and anything over 400 kg is not wanted. That is not acceptable. The MII has got to work in co-operation with the primary producer, which is the farmer. It looks as if the MII is trying to soften the blow to the farmers in relation to post-2015, when quotas come into effect, there will be many more Friesian-type animals in the country and, suddenly, the MII will not need a bull beef sector. It will come along and take cattle at whatever price it can source them because there will not be a demand and there will not be the same quality in the country.

How many, not counting farmers, are working directly in the meat sector in this country? What percentage of the kill in Northern Ireland is controlled by factories from the South? I refer to the big players such as AIBP, Kepak and Dawn Meats. Perhaps MII could give me those figures.