Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thought I was in Rip van Winkle land for a while. I am the longest serving and oldest member of the Oireachtas agriculture committee - I went on it in 1993, a long time ago. I remember when I protested strongly against the cartel movement and certain individuals taking over particular industries and consolidating them. I was nearly trampled by farmers for opposing those things - I was being a communist, I suppose. Many who spoke today would be people who opposed the views I articulated at that time and which I still hold. When we create monopolies and cartels, the victims are the people at the lowest rung of the ladder. Monopolies and cartels have exercised muscle, power and monopoly, and they give people what they like and that is what people have to take.

The last thing we should do in the Dáil is contribute to any misinformation or to mislead the farming public into thinking that certain objectives are achievable which may not be so and in effect advocate for the legitimate expectations which can arise from over-promising and from false hope. I know this because I stood on the picket lines with many farmers and, indeed, I did a lot more work behind the scenes, helping out certain organisations - that is all I will say about that at this point. My advice has always been very straight and strict.

At the end of the day, this will come down to price. Cool heads need to prevail on all sides. We need to reflect carefully on the agreement that has been reached in the past number of days. Some people have doubts as to the bona fides and the trust that one can invest in the processors and there is understandable anxiety that they would ever honour anything. However, insofar as we can take people at some degree of trust, I think this heralds an opportunity for a new beginning to secure the necessary improvements in farm incomes from beef enterprise. A significant amount of progress was made and a significant number of the objectives that were set out by the various organisations involved, some of which I was advising, have been achieved, which must be acknowledged. I and my Labour Party colleagues have certainly listened carefully to what the president said this evening, namely, this is the first step. The oak tree did not grow overnight: the acorn seed was there and from there significant progress was fleshed out. Although I do not go around the press looking for any kudos, I have done a lot of work behind the scenes and I have many contacts. I believe a small increase in the base price, along with the other achievements, would bring everybody around to accepting that this is the first step. I hope this can be achieved.

Agreements, by their very nature, are predicated on compromise, which eventually means that none of the parties achieves what they set out as their objectives or goals at the beginning. Farmers are justifiably frustrated about the low price of beef compared to the price of production and the desperate income situation that prevails on so many farms, which would be worse only for the single farm payment system. Partial decoupling came in during 2001 and then full decoupling happened in 2005 and decoupled payments from output. Those have become devalued in terms of purchasing power, which is another issue. The single farm payment was brought in to complement price, which we should not forget, and that was said at the time by the Commissioner. I was there: I was listening carefully to all of this and I took it in.

There has been a perfect storm brewing in agriculture. I did a study in 1983, when there were 120,000 suckler cows. In 2013, there were 1.17 million suckler cows. I warned about this and there was cacophony of sound from everybody and every party in this House except myself. I warned about Harvest 2020 and about the 2025 targets for cattle. When the abolition of milk quotas took place, I warned about what would happen. What did happen? There were 290,000 extra milk cows.

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