Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is €3.30 a kilo. It is at the average European price.

Deputies McNamara and Connaughton mentioned live exports. If the Minister does not get live exports up and running quickly to take the surplus second grade cattle out of the country it will collapse further. That will make matters worse for the producer and will have huge social consequences, particularly for people on marginal land, people who are struggling to survive and get up on their feet and get going.

The Minister has a responsibility. I have a lot of faith in him, believe it or not. He is quite good at his job but he needs to grow a pair of balls and take on the multiples and the beef barons. They cannot be allowed to get away with it. They have manipulated the farming organisations. They have sucked everybody into what they are doing. They are destroying rural Ireland and all our constituents and they are allowed to get away with it. We must all take a stand and say loud and clear that the Larry Goodmans and people like him, the cartel, will stop and have to stop. The multiples must not be allowed to decide that they will not accept an island of Ireland label in order that they can manipulate the market for their selfish ends. I could ask the Irish people to boycott them if they do not relax what they are doing now, charging €35.95 a kilo when the farmer is getting €3.30 a kilo. That is grotesque. It is wrong and it is criminal. It must be resisted and the Minister must stand up against it.

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