Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

With all due respect, if we are going to make accusations, we need to have evidence to back them up. I am not saying it has not been a difficult year for beef farmers, it has. That is why I have been involved intensively throughout the summer with farming organisations and factories to try to change the structure of the sector. There has been a fractious and difficult relationship between farmers and factories for as long as I can remember because farmers want more money for very high quality produce while factories operate in a price competitive environment. We are trying to redesign the relationship between farmers and factories through negotiation and discussion in a beef forum as opposed to megaphone diplomacy which has failed to change anything. That is why we come back to protest after protest whereas the beef forum can function if all stakeholders work with it.

The bargaining power of farmers will increase significantly through producer organisations, which we discussed earlier. In the meantime, we will discuss and try to resolve this evening at the beef forum a whole series of grievances which farmers rightly have. That follows two weeks of very intensive negotiation chaired by Mr. Michael Dowling. Let us focus on the issues we know we can resolve rather than to raise issues which have been doing the rounds for many years.

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