Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I find it slightly confusing that the Deputy says the beef forum is only a talking shop on one hand, and on the other makes great play of calling for that talking shop to convene. I repeat what I said to Deputy Martin Kenny. By law, neither I nor the forum has any role in respect of price. I have taken initiatives to give the primary producer, the beef and suckler farmers whom we discussed earlier, greater clout. We have tried to promote producer organisations to avoid a situation where a farmer drives up and delivers cattle as a price taker. Through organisation, a large number of farmers are able to engage with the processing sector from a position of strength. That is the advantage of producer organisations. In other big beef economies such as France, producer organisations are a key part of the architecture and enable farmers to engage from a position of greater strength than they can as single farmers. We need to develop that further. We have the legislative framework for them. We have approved facilitators which have not yet been activated. There is a role there that needs to be exploited. As for price, the Deputy knows there is nothing the forum can do about price.

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