Mr. Henry Burns:

I appreciate the opportunity to make a couple of points. The organisations have provided much information and I concur with much of it. What ICOS said about the marts is a huge issue - the kernel of the issue. We killed 1.4 million cattle the year before last and 100,000 extra last year. We are trying to kill 100,000 more this year - in other words, we are trying to kill 1.6 million cattle this year versus 1.4 million two years ago. The factories and the Minister encourage people to keep these calves, but the bottom line is that the farmer is no longer in the driving seat. Once a calf is six weeks old, it is trapped on the island of Ireland. I describe it that way. The animal appears to be trapped on the island. Our options are running out and the farmer is paying the price.

Another very important issue - I know we are not here today to discuss it - is the trade talks with America, Brazil and other places. Huge damage could be done here. I think there will be an announcement fairly soon that America is open to beef from Europe, and there will be great fanfare around that. The American beef market is running at around €1 per kilogram below the Irish or European price. It is thousands of miles away. There will be fanfare around the announcement from the Minister, Bord Bia and lots of other people, but the bottom line is that it is €1 per kilogram under the European price. We have a market 70 miles up the road across the Border and certainly across the water which is €1 per kilogram ahead, but we cannot get into it. There is a huge logjam here for the Minister to sort out.

We have heard about all of these so-called markets, including Japan. When I put that to the representatives of the meat industry in the context of the current problems we have with marketing and prices, they smile and say they have not got a kilogram in to those markets yet. We need some reality. We need to stop stargazing, look closer to home and sort out those problems.

When we reached that 1.4 million kill figure, farmers appeared to be in the driving seat and the factories were ringing them. Now they are ringing them and they will not answer the telephone. As a result of the Minister’s meeting with them, the factories issued a press release which included very little but contained a list of telephone numbers of all the factories. I know one person who had 20 animals to be slaughtered and rang all of these numbers but could only have one animal slaughtered. I do not know how many factories are on the list, but the press release was published in the Irish Farmers Journal.
We need to take stock of the competition and what the Minister needs to do. This started out as a bull beef crisis but then moved to affect what were supposed to be in-spec bullocks and heifers. It has moved into the marts along the west coast because of a lack of competition from the North of Ireland, which is so important. Deputies Éamon Ó Cuív and Michael Colreavy and Senator Michael Comiskey are well in tune with the live trade and the problem has filtered down to the South to affect the dairy calf which is almost valueless. We were going to be the new boys in town, with the Harvest 2020 strategy. We were going to be like the Starship Enterprisetaking off and showing the world how to do things. People are on the verge of shooting calves or putting them down because they have no value. Where does that leave us? This is a huge issue. We need to consider how to sort out the problem and not end up with it again.
Looking back to 2010, this country exported 340,000 live cattle. Two years later it was no accident that we had a tight supply and farmers were able to get a price with a margin. The factories and the Harvest 2020 project encouraged farmers to keep extra cattle and we are now trying to kill 200,000 more, but the farmer cannot get a price with a margin, which is totally unacceptable. These are issues for the Minister to resolve. At one stage he said he had no role. Then he invited in representatives of the factories. That is not acceptable. This is the biggest industry in the country, whether one is a dairy or a suckler farmer. Whether one is a small farmer in the west or a big dairy farmer in the south, it will take millions of euro out of the industry. We spent all of last year trying to keep European and rural development moneys in the industry. As our president said, these cuts have the ability to take €174 million out in a full year. It is, therefore, a huge issue for the cattle industry. It is a crisis that affects cattle, marts and farmers and could even affect animal welfare if it is not dealt with.