Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Deputy's commitment to this industry and I fully agree with some of the opinions and concerns he has outlined. I cannot answer his question about the budget for live exports but I can try to find that out. I do not know how it breaks down. The trade mission to Morocco and Algeria, which will be led by the Minister, people from the Department and Bord Bia, will be multifaceted. Beef and sheep meat exports and live exports are part of it. As the Deputy will be well aware, the beef grid was an agreement between the meat industry and at least one farming organisation. I do not know if any more than one farming organisation was involved. I think the forum has agreed that this be considered, and I think the Deputy is correct when he says the forum is the best chance of securing a long-term industry. It is my sincere opinion that all stakeholders in the industry, from primary processors and secondary processors right through to the retailers, should sit down and decide that there is nothing wrong with the product but that everybody in this production chain must have a decent, reliable, steady income. Volatility, no more than we have seen in the dairy industry, is the enemy of securing a future for the sector. Everybody should sit down, whether that involves some form of forward selling or contract selling, as is being talked about in the milk industry, to try to give people certainty when they look at their options and go to their creditors and banks and decide that this is the industry they want to finance. We all must be part of this, and producer organisations are very important if we can get them off the ground. They offer an opportunity for Ireland's beef farmers, who are probably by far our biggest industry, and I hope that sector can be put on a professional footing all the way from the farm gate to the table plate.

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