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

Yesterday, the Taoiseach said in the Dáil that farmers in Ireland are being offered the average European prices for beef. That is true. Unfortunately, our problem did not start yesterday but a number of years ago. Farmers in Europe were being paid 40 or 50 cent more than Irish farmers. I can fully understand the difficulties and the feelings of the farming community at the moment. It is very easy to look back but we have to look forward. The time has hopefully come for somebody to negotiate for the people at the gates. There are people facing financial ruin. We are 44 days away from Brexit. If we have a no-deal Brexit, beef going to England, where most of our beef goes, will face a tariff of 50%. What will that do to cattle prices in this country? Today we are talking about €3.40. We could be talking about €2.40 in a month. That is the sad reality.

At present, we should be killing approximately 35,000 cattle per week. For the last two or three weeks, that kill has not happened at all. If we have another two weeks of that, we will have more than 100,000 cattle that have to be slaughtered. That will depress the market. If is absolutely imperative, however the Minister does it, that this blockade is stopped straight away. I believe that farmers should be paid a premium for the cow to help the rural family to stay alive. I believe that we should have a rural environment protection, REP, scheme. Get rid of those Mickey Mouse schemes of putting up bird boxes and such, wasting people's time where people have to pay half what they get to get a payment. Issue a good REP scheme, even if it has to be attached to climate change measures. The REP scheme was very beneficial to farmers and kept them on the land. That money went straight into farmers' pockets and not to somebody else. That is what is needed for the future.

Many statements have been made about the price of beef and who is getting what. It is very simple. Going into a meat plant, we know what the animal is costing the factory. We know what the factory is charging and we know what the supermarkets are charging too. There should be a full assessment on a carcase to see who exactly is getting what because at the moment nobody knows. I have experience of this as a butcher. It can be done. I spoke to a sheep agent yesterday. He has more than 1,000 sheep ready to go to a factory. It is another delay for another two or three weeks. It will depress the price and there is no question of that. In the end, the farmers will suffer more. I believe that the Government should declare this a national crisis because that is what we are facing at the moment and that is what the farming community is facing. Whatever has to be done should be done.

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