Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, is present to take the motion, but, once again, it appears the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, is away on what he considers to be more important business. We had a situation last week where he could not attend Question Time, even though we had facilitated a changing of the day in order that he could be present. We also had a situation where he was not present for Leaders' Questions to deal with the issue of beef production. Again, tonight, we find that beef farmers are let down by the fact that he does not think it is sufficiently important for him to be in the House. I welcome the Minister of State and wish him well in the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle because it is clear the Minister has signed off, headed off into the sunset and is nowhere to be seen. However, he has left a trail of destruction behind him. For the past two years, since I became agriculture spokesperson for Fianna Fáil, I have been saying that in the long term the biggest issue that will have to be resolved is that of price to ensure farmers get a fair return on their product. The motion calls for the crisis since the back end of last year and earlier to be addressed.

Long before the bull beef price issue arose in the spring, I had been highlighting the fact that Irish prices were falling behind prices in British supermarkets. This is our primary industry. It affects 100,000 farms and 150,000 people across the country and is the backbone of the farming sector. I note the comments made by the ICMSA today that the cost of keeping a cow means that the production of weanlings is not paying and - a point I have been making for some considerable time - it is ridiculous in the long term to expect farmers to supplement their farming income from the single farm payment.

We are being told by the Minister that nothing can be done. Again, I have highlighted the fall in the price of liquid milk during the years; the farmer used to get over 43% of the price per litre in a shop, but this has fallen to 32%. According to the Irish Farmers Journal, in its agribusiness section last week, in 2013 a farmer was getting 57% of the price consumers were paying in a UK supermarket; he or she is now getting 42%, a fall of 15%. However, despite all of the evidence, the Minister says the market regulates itself. I put it to the Minister of State that because there are only a few players in the telecoms industry and several other, we have provided for regulators. Where there is a dominant player against a multitude of small players, a regulator is needed because somebody is needed to referee the match to ensure there is fair play. What does the Minister say? He says we should let the market regulate itself and let a few big players control the game

We had a situation which was particularly acute in the Minister of State's county where farmers with a considerable amount of livestock were advised to produce bull beef. We all know that beef cannot be provided according to the new age specification being required by the factories. There had been discussions with them and Teagasc about bull beef, but, suddenly, when it came to payday, there was no price to be obtained and many strong farmers were significantly burned because of what happened.

We are asking for a number of things to be done. At this stage, it should have impacted on the Government that there is a crisis, that something needs to be done and that we cannot continue with the current arrangement. Therefore, we have asked for the appointment of a beef regulator. We have also asked for an explanation as to why cattle can be put on a lorry and a boat in Larne, yet the same companies will not carry cattle from Dublin to Holyhead. A lot of ridiculous excuses were given as to why that was so, but we need to have the issue dealt with.

It is amazing that, with a Sinn Féin Minister in Northern Ireland, it has proved impossible to resolve the issue of nomad cattle. It is amazing that we cannot have weanlings brought from the west to the north east of Ireland and that there is a huge Border difficulty with labelling in that transaction. Nothing is happening. We see no evidence of the Minister pushing that agenda with this Northern counterpart, Ms Michelle O'Neill. I was very interested - he is in the same party as Ms O'Neill - when I listened to Deputy Martin Ferris at Question Time last week. He asked the Minister of State to persuade his boss to sit down with Ms O'Neill to resolve the issue. If we can prove that there is intransigence in the North, we can go to Ms O'Neill and take up the issue sa to why she is being so intransigent. However, all of the indications from Ms O'Neill's colleague are that this is not the case.

There are things to be done. There are recommendatins in the Dowling report that should, no doubt, be implemented. However, just sitting around and talking about it in talking shops, with no action being taken, while farmers are suffering huge losses in their businesses - the bigger they are, the bigger the losses - is not acceptable. It is important that, rather than the platitudes in the counter-motion brought forward by the Government, the Minister of State as someone who comes from a strong farming area and a strong farming background outline the actions the Government will take, rather than words, and tell us that he is going to do something more than provide for the soft supports outlined in the amendment.

I refer to the quality assurance scheme. A quality assurance scheme should be a way of guaranteeing premium prices, as I am sure the Minister of State will agree. However, it is interesting that while 87% of farmers are in the quality assurance scheme, the reality is that the bonus is being paid in respect of only a very small number of cattle. The reality is that the scheme has been manipulated in such a way that the quality assurance bonus is being paid in respect of one quarter of the cattle going into factories. Instead of being a scheme to put up prices for farmers, as the farming organisations have highlighted, the quality assurance scheme is being used as a mechanism to have a very tight specification, even though most of the cattle are being sold into the British market and at the same price as the rest. Many cattle are now being discounted because the quality assurance scheme is doing the exact opposite of what it was intended to do.

This is a Bord Bia-promoted scheme. I understand it comes under the Department's policy. Again, it is having the opposite effect on farmers.

The biggest issue facing farming and the primary producers of food in this country and Europe and around the world is the inability of the small producer to ensure fair prices from dominant multiples and processors. We have often heard talk about Fair Trade coffee and other products. This is not a crisis of yesterday or today but one that has been going on for some considerable time. The Government has refused even to recognise that this is a major issue for all primary producers and that we need to level the playing field to ensure that primary producers, not only in this country but across Europe and the world, are protected against the powers of forces much greater than themselves.

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