Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are sharing in the interests of social solidarity. First, I welcome everyone here. Some people have travelled some distance so they are all very welcome tonight. The Labour Party will be supporting this motion and I am glad the Government is not opposing it because we absolutely need to do everything.

I live in a quite rural constituency but I also come from a dairy farm and I live in a large farming area. To protect the rural economy we need to address what is put down in this motion. On top of that, we obviously have the whole shenanigans that are ongoing with Brexit, which is changing as we stand and sit here tonight. The consequences could be potentially disastrous for one of our most important industries, with the UK Government indicating in its published draft that protectionist tariffs would remain for beef and dairy products, even if the British widely apply zero tariffs in other areas. We have to think of how we will address this issue. As there is no doubt that any restriction for beef exports to the British market will cause huge, immediate and intense difficulties, every effort needs to be made to look at alternative markets and to put in place measures to assist all of the farmers and exporters to open up to new markets and increase market share in markets where we already have a foothold. However, even if the UK does crash out with no deal, it is highly likely that they will have to return to negotiate a trade deal with the EU and deal with the issues we are talking about tonight almost immediately, which we also need to prepare for as a contingency. We will have to see what happens after this week and the coming weeks to deal with all the issues that have been outlined by me and by others in this House.

I want to deal with the fact that we have been saying to the Government for months that it will have to put supports in place to save jobs and businesses that are at risk in these worst-case scenarios. On what we know is going on around the country, I meet farmers all the time who are at their wits' end with their financial situation. There have been many public meetings and we really need to look at the pricing model and to create a sustainable, consistent pricing model for farmers inasmuch as that is possible.

There is no doubt that the cost of production means we have farmers selling below cost at present and that cannot be allowed continue. I agree with those who have spoken about the business model of beef processing, how it is structured and its whole cartel nature. I spent three summers working in meat factories in order to go to college. I know what they are like. I know where they have come from and where they are going, and it is not nice and cannot continue. As a country and an industry, we need to stand up to that and to do so pretty quickly because of everything else that is going on. I support those who are trying to mobilise and deal with this issue because what is going on is not sustainable.

In the limited time I have, I will deal with some of the issues in the motion before us. I absolutely agree with the suggestion in the motion that the Government should look at relaxing the EU state aid limits in this period of uncertainty and crisis. This is something I have spoken about at length before. We need to use the leverage we have to change the state aid limits in respect of this sector. It was done before and can be done again. In addition, the Government should ensure that the EU's European Globalisation Adjustment Fund is available to support food industries. I was an MEP for two years and as the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund was used for a number of other sectors and industries, I cannot see why it could not be used for these sectors as well.

The contingency that most worries me is the risk that the UK will engage in a cheap food policy whereby it would let in food from outside the EU that might not meet our quality standards. There has been a lot of mention of chlorinated chicken in the media but what about hormone-treated beef from the United States or cheap beef from Brazil or Argentina? I note that the motion calls for no increase in beef access in any trade deal between the EU and South American countries in Mercosur, presumably for precisely this reason. However, if the UK is outside the EU and opens the floodgates, there is a risk that we could permanently lose market share for beef in the UK which, over a period of time, despite the best will in the world of any new trade agreement, will be difficult to replace. I want to know that the Government is engaging in serious planning around all these scenarios and to date I do not have confidence that it is all happening. We need to look strategically at how we will deal with these competing threats based on different scenario outcomes over the coming weeks.

There are other suggestions in the motion that I also support, such as securing additional funding under the CAP for suckler cow payments. This is absolutely necessary. These farmers are totally dependent. We need to leverage our position to get additional funding. We also need to look at transposing the EU directive on unfair trading practices into Irish law in order to support farmers. There undoubtedly are other measures like this that need to be supported. There is no doubt but that there is pressure on the sustainability of livestock farming in this country. As the son of a dairy farmer, I have to say that the Taoiseach's flippant remarks about eating less beef were extremely badly received, not alone in my constituency but across the country in respect of an industry that is obviously struggling.

Other issues I do not have time to deal with include the staging of production and production limits and how we can manage that better into the future, as well as the other incentives we can put in place for farmers; agricultural emissions; finding other sources of income for farmers to make a decent living; and ensuring we can mitigate against costs that could be coming down the line because farmers cannot take more shocks. They are completely caught without the ability to be flexible enough to deal with the shocks that are hitting the sector. We have to create a far more sustainable situation with Government support and flexibility from the EU in order that they can deal with issues that are hitting them.

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