Mr. Angus Woods:

That is a good place where the Oireachtas joint committee could help in making a positive step forward in increasing transparency by rooting around to get the figures to find out what is happening in that space. It would be good to do politically and is an area where politicians could make a really strong difference. The Minister says he cannot do anything about price, but politicians have a real role to play in increasing transparency. It is something that could be worked on.

On protecting the money, Mr. Healy is right. Our opinion is that the closer it is to the primary producer, the farmer who produces the weanling, the better, but live exports also play a key role in driving competition in the marketplace. The factories will have less ability to manoeuvre the price if there are strong live exports. That is an area in which there is significant room for improvement.

POs were mentioned. We have been clear that we are licensed to facilitate produce organisations and have said clearly that if any group of farmers wants assistance, we will help it out in that space. We are more than willing to work with anyone who wants to talk to us about that issue. It is mentioned in the context of consumers and we also have to remember that this is an exporting country. The European marketplace is key for us. A total of 80% to 90% of what we produce is sold in continental European markets. Therefore, we have to talk about the European, as well as the Irish, consumer and what the European consumer wants and is willing to pay for. They are often different messages. In general, European consumers tell us that they want the highest of standards of production and welfare.

They want the highest of everything but in Europe, the CAP tells us we need to do more for less and improve water quality and the environment while trade policy is to have free trade agreements all over the place with beef offered up as part of them and let the beef farmers figure it out themselves. This is why payments to beef farmers and the beef sector have always been important. Historically, the beef sector has always had strong payments with the suckler cow payment, the ten month and 22 month slaughter premiums and extensification premiums. There has always been strong support for the beef sector in Europe. Going back even earlier we had intervention, private storage and export credits, which were built into the price at the time. The change in the way it has been structured means targeted supports for the beef sector are the way forward and they are key.

People have mentioned pitting farmer against farmer. We have deliberately chosen not to do this, which is why we have spoken about targeted payments, as opposed to coupled payments. There was a drive to push for coupled payments by various people in the media. We always have been in favour of targeted payments. We need to reward farmers for doing the work, keeping the animals and farming in an environmentally friendly fashion. This is why targeted payments are critical. The sheep and suckler sectors are designated as sensitive in Europe. If we are going to designate the suckler sector as sensitive but have a trade policy that gives away our European meat market, we have to find a way around it because if it is sensitive we have to support it. This is why we state that targeted payments are absolutely critical. There is a range of other issues I am more than willing to discuss.