Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and apologise for not hearing all the presentation. I had to meet a group visiting the House. We discussed this in the previous session in more depth and I will just reference it now, but there is an enormous sectoral problem within the overall agriculture and food sector. There is a problem in the beef sector. This sector is strongly linked to the UK economy. There is a difficult situation in the context of Brexit, but the beef sector is particularly threatened and in difficulty now. Will Mr. Kelly comment on that? Apart from subventing farmers with direct payments, are there steps that are not being taken currently to maximise the marketing and sales of our beef and the way we present it? Where does he see the threats to the price now? We are aware of the fluctuation in sterling, and the potential of a no-deal Brexit was enormous. However, leaving that aside, are we adjusting properly to the issues with beef, beef sales and the type of market that exists for beef?

The reason I am going on about this all day is that I met the protesting farmers on three nights for an hour each night. I sat with them, talked to them and listened to their stories. People might talk about the efficacy of their protest or otherwise, but that is a different debate. The important matters in this context are the hardship, the levels of poverty, the threat to their business and the fact that they will not be fit to be primary producers for much longer, which presents its own problem.

How do the organisations see the marketing of beef, new products and research addressed? Have they any kind of a strategy to get over that? Our guests may have elucidated these points in my absence. If they did, I apologise. However, this is a real issue for families. Many of them were actually prepared to give me documentary evidence on the nights I met them. I did not accept it but I know anecdotally any small farmer with beef as a major component of his or her income is supplementing it with money from an outside job. Either that or it is not sustainable. These farmers should not be subventing their farming incomes.