Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McConalogue for tabling this motion. I come from the north west, as the Minister knows, and there is no doubt that the north west and the farmers there are the engine that drives the beef industry in this country. We produce the calves that are fed for beef, and I agree with Deputy Danny Healy-Rae that, as I said, the north west supplies the beef industry throughout the country. I am very much in touch with farmers and I know that if suckler farmers do not get some help, specifically a suckler grant of at least €200, they will not survive. There is a €2.5 billion industry here that will collapse. The farmers are put to the pin of their collar. They cannot go dairying because the land is so scattered. They can survive with suckler cows, and most of them are working as well. Even at that, they are struggling to survive and to keep their families and keep running their lands.

I just do not fully understand the beef data and genomics scheme. It is said we will reduce greenhouse gasses. I do not know the difference between a Friesian cow and a suckler cow or how this greenhouse gas will be reduced. I can tell the Minister that it will create a lot more greenhouse gasses trying to put flesh on the calf of a Friesian cow. I know from my 35 years spent in the butchering business what a Friesian cow will produce and what a good suckler cow will produce, whether it is Aberdeen Angus, Hereford, Charolais or Limousin. There is absolutely no comparison in the wide earthly world to what a Friesian cow will produce. This is wrong. We will destroy our beef industry. I know cases of Friesian cows with five stars and good suckler breeding stock, well-bred over many years, with one star and two stars. What is going on does not make a bit of sense to me.

I commend Deputy Charlie McConalogue on tabling the motion. Unless these farmers get support, we will not have to worry about them because there will be none of them left.

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