Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I will take him through why this happened in the way it happened.

As a primary beef producer, I am acutely aware of the importance of competition in all sectors, including the meat processing sector, in ensuring an economic return to primary producers. There is a well-established regulatory process involved in the assessment of takeovers to ensure that consumers, other businesses or, indeed, agriculture does not suffer or that the proposed takeover does not lead to a reduction in competition in the beef sector.

The State through the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, has an existing and well-established infrastructure for the assessment of mergers and acquisitions of business organisations generally. As part of this assessment, the CCPC examines proposed mergers or acquisitions involving business organisations to ensure there is no "substantial lessening" of competition. However, in situations where a proposed merger or acquisition exceeds certain thresholds, the matter must be notified directly to the EU Commission. This merger has been investigated by the Commission through DG Competition and they have found that the acquisition would not adversely impact effective competition in any of the markets where these companies are involved, for example, the purchasing of live animals for slaughter, downstream selling of fresh meat or the collection of animal by-products. The Commission’s investigation focused on the beef and sheepmeat sectors in Ireland and a comprehensive questionnaire was sent to stakeholders in the industry, farming organisations and State bodies. My Department responded to this by providing detailed statistics on these sectors, especially in respect of slaughter numbers, prices and live exports.

The structure of the beef processing sector has been the subject of much discussion over the years and one of the recurring themes has been the question of rationalisation in the processing industry. However, the issue of rationalisation must be discussed in the context of ensuring that the question of competition within the processing industry is not compromised. This is why the process of examining this takeover was of the utmost importance. The process of the investigation by the relevant authorities, in this case the European Commission, is detailed and robust, with a core objective being to ensure competition within the sector is not unduly affected by the proposed takeover. The Commission is anxious to ensure that the process is sufficiently transparent with details of any new notifications being published on the Commission’s competition website, which will allows any interested parties to make a submission.

I am very conscious of the need for competition in the beef sector in Ireland, as for any sector of an industry, to ensure that producers and all those involved in the different stages of production can achieve the best price for their product. I emphasise that in addition to the number of meat processors, competition in the marketplace is dependent on a number of factors, including the number of markets available for sellers of Irish beef on which to place their product and of course a vibrant live export trade. To that end, the Minster, Deputy Creed, has worked tirelessly since taking office on opening up new markets to Irish beef with the assistance of relevant State bodies, including Bord Bia, as did his predecessor.

Additionally, 2015 saw Irish beef exports increase by 6% to €2.41 billion from 2014. Access to new international markets including the US, Canada, Oman, the Maldives and Iran was secured during 2015.

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