Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his full attention. It has been said that delayed reaction is a big issue that has arisen. My time is limited. I did not expect to be speaking. I will put a question to the Minister. Would it be wise to suggest that Meat Industry Ireland, MII, send representatives to each unit factory plant to get the management and the boys at the gates to talk? There are no proper talks going on among the various local plants. Following the Minister’s deliberations on Sunday evening, when everyone thought a resolution had been found, it was said that people should go back and talk to the individual plants, be it in Charleville, Bandon or, in my case, Watergrasshill. However, nothing is happening at the moment in regard to discussions. Would it be possible for MII representatives to get out of Dublin, go down to the plants, go into the yards and meet the farmers to see if they can thrash out the local prices? How anyone can come out of a meeting, and perhaps the farmers are at fault for this, without coming up with some kind of gentleman’s agreement on the base price I will never know. I know the Minister cannot give the base price but there must be something in the room that would give an indication of where the base price would come from. That is where the issue has arisen. Fair dues to all those involved. They covered bonuses, incentives, the 30-month rule and the 36-month rule. All that is grand but it is no good until we know on top of what that is being paid. I hope to speak tomorrow night on our motion on this issue. The Minister has done good work on the issue but we urgently need to get results. That key point is what is happening at the moment. Every farmer would pay the price if there was a divide and conquer approach. If there were no beef producers there would be nobody to buy the calves from the dairy farmers and nobody to buy feed from the tillage farmers.

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