Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy argued in his earlier contribution that it should be possible to have a digitised image of the carcass available to the farmer on the day. I would not disagree. I will be sending a load of cattle to a factory fairly shortly myself and I would be very happy if I had an accurate read-out.

With respect, I would contradict slightly some of what the Deputy has said. In the UK they do daily checks, but are they with the new machines or with the old ones that we have here at present? Information should be able to travel through automatic checks. For example, a company based in Enniskerry in County Wicklow is able to monitor energy use in multi-storey buildings in Dubai. They can switch on and off the heat via monitoring. EirGrid does it and everyone can do it. It is centralised control. A company in Germany is in charge of it. The increase in sophistication that has taken place since 2004 should allow ongoing monitoring.

I urge everybody to come together. We have set up a round-table group for a beef forum but people have decided not to engage with it. We need to get everybody around the table for transparency in order that we understand the systems of grading and pricing. That must include producers, processors and retailers. Everybody should understand. I favour having a sophisticated grading system on which everybody has eyes. Health and safety does not allow an owner of animals to follow them down the line the way it used to be done years ago. There has to be another way of doing it. We should be aiming to get there and that is the purpose of having a forum.

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