Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I will be brief. I apologise for missing some of the presentations. In fairness, farmers are business people. The witnesses represent a business organisation. Farmers cannot survive if they do not make a profit and if they do not survive, the witnesses will not survive. This is where it is heading and we are very close to it. I believe the witnesses said that we have 34 meat plants in the country. If we look at the papers and prices, we can see that there is not five cent in the difference between the 34 plants. It is beyond one's imagination to think that something involving price fixing is not happening here. I believe price fixing is taking place.

We talk about farmers with good breeding stock, suckler cows and calves. I agree that rebranding should take place because those cattle are treated the same as some of the calves being bred from a dairy herd. I have a serious issue with this. Some of these breeding dairy herds will never produce beef. It is not possible to produce beef from them. I was a butcher for 35 years and know exactly what I am talking about. I know beef. There is a difference between certain colours of animals one way or another. I see supermarkets using beef and to a certain extent lamb as a market leader within the supermarket. I see round roasts being advertised at certain times at a price I would have been unable to sell them for when I was butchering 20 years ago. Who is paying for that? The farmers are paying for it. It is the same with rump steak, which is cheaper today than it was 20 years ago, and cattle are twice the price so there is a serious problem issue.

Producer groups have been mentioned. I know the Beef Plan Movement has plans for producer groups within counties. I believe that is a good idea. It is done with sheep. Producer groups in my constituency and counties close to me have improved the price they get for their lambs. I do not see anything wrong with farmers doing the same thing for their beef.

Regarding the quality of the suckler herd, the position regarding genomics is crazy. We have the best cattle bred over generations - good suckler cows and calves - and now they will be thrown into the same pot as cattle in the genomics scheme where people are trying to produce beef cattle from a dairy herd. That is very unfair. I know they are talking about lighter cuts and joints but there is a massive difference between a beef animal from a dairy herd and a beef animal from a properly bred suckler herd. This is why we might need rebranding.

Farmers are not surviving on what they are being paid at the moment. If they are not treated fairly and as business people and given a price they can survive on, they will not survive until 2025. We are talking about Food Wise 2025, which is a plan for farming in the future.

The way things are going at the moment they will not survive until 2022. All they want is fair treatment. All they want to do is survive and rear their families on the land. They are being treated very badly by the meat processors.