Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The problem is that the system is broken. That has been the case for quite a while. The Minister is aware of that, as is everyone who has been involved in the situation. It goes back 25 to 30 years since we had the consolidation of all the small meat processing plants around the country into the hands of a very small number of people. That created a situation where we were told that the market would solve the problem and that we would have new efficiencies. Those new efficiencies have led to a situation where, first, the people who work in the meat processing plants nowadays, by and large, are foreign labour who have come into the country because of the very low wages that are being paid in them. Years ago, there were many meat factories in my area and one always knew the farmers who worked in them because they wore white wellingtons. They stood out. There were loads of them. They worked in the meat factories in Longford, Dromod and Rooskey and the situation was the same in every county in the country. Nowadays, there is a handful of factories and all of the people working in them are foreign labour because the pressure was downwards, not just on the wages paid to the workers but also on the money they paid for the animals. It is the same thing: the farmers are being treated in the very same way. There has been downward pressure in order to provide the product at a cheaper price supposedly, but really what is happening is that all the money is being taken by the processors in the middle. That is the problem. The farmers cannot continue like this.

The point has been made several times that it is an international market and that we get the average price that is paid in Europe. We do, but the problem is that the product in this country is not the average product. It is different. It is unique. We have a family farm setting. The animals are free roaming and grass fed and there is traceability from farm to fork. Nowhere else does that, yet we have an average price. Farmers are seething with anger that they are being used in this situation. The Minister is aware of that. He spent some 40 hours at the negotiating table with them. What we must do is recognise that the key to the situation is price. It is ludicrous to say that price cannot be discussed. If one is going to bargain about anything, it is the price one has to bargain about. Farmers need to get a base price that reflects the level of work and effort they put in. I do not need to tell the Minister that; he knows it, but, unfortunately, the system that has been set up is not in favour of the primary producer, the people who work in the meat plants or the consumer but in favour of those in the middle who make all the money and who are ripping off the entire hard-working community whom we see at the ploughing championships and across the country. Rural communities depend on the farming community to be vibrant and sustainable. If the farming community is vibrant and making money then everyone makes money. We need to get back to the price. Until we get to that point and increase the base price for the animals going into the factory, we are going nowhere.

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