Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for moving the motion. The Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine raised this issue first at the behest of my colleague, Deputy Deering, and asked that we do some work on it. With that in mind, we set about conducting hearings with all stakeholders, including farm organisations, the meat industry, ICOS, Bord Bia and Teagasc. While the issue initially was about bull beef and the change in the spec for the animals, which was definitely contentious, it became clear that unless all stakeholders sat down together, we would not have a beef industry in future. Nobody could project what sort of future it held. I am a still-active suckler farmer myself and I understand exactly what is going on here. I do not normally sell finished animals, but the issue has a ripple effect down upon us all. When the price is depressed, it feeds back down through the system.

I was amused at one stage. I have heard Deputies from the other side condemning the forum as a talking shop, yet part of the motion calls on the Government to implement in full the recommendations of the Dowling report. It seems contradictory. If one is not going to get people together to talk and to provide a forum in which people can thrash out the issues, chaired as this will be four times by the Minister, something vitally important will not be done. Some four or five years ago, we had the very same crisis in dairy when milk prices hit 20 cent per litre. It was unsustainable in the long run for farmers to continue to produce milk at that price. It was then and it is now. We must look at what constitutes a sustainable cost base on which the beef industry will be built. There is a variable in there compared to milk where people buy animals in the open market at different stages in their progression before they become ready for slaughter. We must look at that.

A few years ago, the meat industry told us it could process 40,000 cattle per week, but it does not seem to be able to do because markets are depressed. We must look at the big picture, an integral part of which is live exports. Live exports have increased but there is more to be done. Some would say it is sacrilegious to sell sometimes our best and sometimes our poorest animals on the hoof. Without it, the industry will not survive as it does not have alternatives. We must look at that. I hope further progress can be made with the North. There is an issue, but it can definitely be sorted out. At North-South level, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has met regularly with his colleague, Ms Michelle O'Neill. Members of Sinn Féin might also urge the Northern Minister to get proactive with the Irish Government on this.

There has been significant investment. Geonomics and the beef data programme are about making improvements. My sons and I are involved in beef discussion groups which help to improve efficiency inside the farm gate. What we must do now is to see that the forum ensures that stakeholders in the industry work towards a single goal. If one does not have a primary product which can be produced for a margin, one will not have an industry.

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