Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The way things have been going, the guys on the margins are getting in on what Bord Bia is doing, but it is the people on the real hills who have the real problem. I have heard different suggestions, such as that since the lambs are not born until April, they would be defined as lambs until September of the following year because it is nearly impossible to get them on the winter trade. That would allow them two summers on the hills. What many other people would define as a hogget would be described as a lamb, because lowland lambs are born in February and have a much longer season. There is a need for the people who are trying to produce the article, because in many cases they will not be able to produce economically what Bord Bia is talking about. We must try to find a market for that in some improved state, but not in the kind of state Mr. Fennell is talking about and at the weights he is talking about.

There is a need for a forum to be put together involving farming organisations, if there are any of them left after the present debacle, and Bord Bia. All the members of farming organisations on the forum should be producing hill lamb on difficult hills because it is not a problem in the marginal hills. Maybe this forum could see whether we could match the product to the market but also to match the market to the product.

The Wild Atlantic Way has been a brilliant idea. At last, after many years trying to sellsunshine on the west coast of Ireland, we said the wilder it is, the better it is. It has been fantastic over the past two weeks, if one likes wildness. That became its attraction. We tailored the marketing to the reality rather than to something one would like to have. I would like if the sun shone on the west coast every summer but it does not. There is a product that could be marketable but we need a much more concerted effort in this regard. We also need to market it on what it is. I think it would pass the Austrian organic standards. Maybe we need an Austrian organic label in this country that does not conform to the higher standards that some other people want. It seems a pity that all this fantastic natural product is sold as if it were the same as something coming out of a feedlot.