Mr. Tom?s Bourke:

The Acting Chair has asked very good questions. There are two income sources for sheep farmers. One is the direct supports, which have been eroded, and the other is the marketplace. As Mr. Comiskey outlined in his opening address, it is critical that the return from the marketplace is maximised. We must also be realists in that regard when, as an exporting country, we look at the price point of our product in terms of where the price of lamb is in all other countries. When we compare the price with other EU countries, with the exception in real terms of France and Spain, and we look at the UK, which has similar production systems, it does look to be challenging. There is clearly a significant lack of transparency around the pricing of sheep meat. As Mr. Cullinan alluded to, on the beef side we have an export benchmark tracker that has been created by Bord Bia. It takes the price of cattle in the export markets and, based on the volume we put in there, it compiles a compounded price. That allows us to directly compare our price with this hypothetical market, which takes in all other countries. There is an urgent need for a comparable system to be put in place on the sheep side in the first instance because that would certainly help with market transparency.

The second issue, as we alluded to previously, is the real function and role of the imports into processing plants. We have continually been told that they are an important aspect of maintaining efficiency and ensuring that we maintain the broader foothold of processors in this country, or are they a mechanism to keep prices down? One could argue it both ways. That needs to be independently validated and verified. As Mr. Comiskey has alluded to, this is work the Food Vision 2030 group needs to kick off because it should be noted that this group is the first industry group for sheep. We have had such groups in dairy and beef and we have had discussions in collective groups on tillage and other areas but this is the first time a sheep group has been established to deal with issues that need to be addressed.

If we look at the sheep sector in the context of producer groups, it is probably the one that is most represented in producer groups throughout the country. In fairness, the people who have organised, managed and run those groups over the years provided a great service to the sector. They have ensured that a significant number of farmers have remained in sheep meat production because of the convenience aspect and the facilitation of interaction with the factory that is taken out of the hands of the smaller suppliers who can sell their lambs on a weekly basis to the group, safe in the knowledge that they are getting the agreed price. All of that is based on a quoted price from the factory. There is, again, an absence of transparency around what is paid for lamb on a weekly basis. One can click on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's website or open any of the national agriculture media each week and see the exact price paid by every single meat factory for every grade of animal within every category. It is a position that a lot of member states in the EU are very envious of, given that it is a degree of transparency that does not exist elsewhere in the beef sector. There are other inadequacies but this is one of the areas where we are well ahead. No such system exists on the sheep side and we need to bring a lot more transparency there.

What we need to ensure within the new Common Agricultural Policy is that there is early-stage support for producer organisations. One of the issues we have raised strongly and discussed with the Department is the importance of the existing sheep producer groups being fully recognised and supported, with significant funding provided for those groups. It is important that these groups, and the people who have run them for the past 15 or 20 years and longer and have provided great service on a voluntary basis to the sheep sector and the farmer members of the groups, qualify for supports. There are significant supports there and we are assured that they will qualify. It is important that the terms and conditions are finalised and made available and that all of the existing groups are supported. In effect, what the Acting Chair is alluding to is empowering groups of farmers to maximise the price they will get. The support they need in addition to that is transparency on pricing so they are not at the mercy of a quoted price on a weekly basis, which effectively undermines a portion of the bonus the groups have negotiated for their members.