Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will make a few comments on the meetings the Minister had. It undoubtedly was time for the Minister to have meetings and maybe they should have been held much sooner.

We learned that Meat Industry Ireland representatives did not go into the room with the farming organisations. Quite honestly, it is an insult to the genuine people, including the Minister, who were there at a meeting that they did not think it worth their while to go into the room, sit down in front of these people, face them and answer questions. It is a disgrace.

Of course, it is all about base price. While it is great to see the incentives, Meat Industry Ireland has stated that the price of beef was €3.60 per kilogram, but we heard today in the Dáil Chamber that the base price is €3.45 per kilogram. How can people have confidence or faith in a system? We are talking about this 8% increase, and increases of 12 cent and 20 cent. The people are not being treated fairly.

The decent thing for Meat Industry Ireland to do would have been to go into the room with those people, sit down in front of them and have a good debate.

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