Martin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the commitment and bravery of all the independent beef farmers, and the movement which is currently protesting, as well as those who stand with them to highlight the conditions they are compelled to live under because of the lack of a decent price for their cattle. I have been on the pickets with these farmers in Rathkeale and Bandon and I am certain that they have been left with no choice. I am quite certain that they are doing this in desperation, in order to get an adequate, liveable income from their products. They felt they had no other choice but to protest and that this was their last opportunity to save their livelihoods. I do not believe that one farmer who is currently picketing the factories wants to be there.

The ground for farmers in rural Ireland is in a particularly bad position, particularly west of the Shannon, and beef farmers can no longer support their families on the income they receive. Families are facing the prospect of losing their home; they face a fight to pay their mortgage and they have debts and loans from last year's fodder crisis which they cannot pay. They are unable to pay co-operatives from which they have purchased manure and feed for their cattle.

How has it come to this? It has not just happened in the last couple of months but has been building on the ground for a number of years. For decades now, we have allowed the Irish beef sector to be run in a cartel-like manner, with its power being left unchecked for so long. This cartel-like group can decide, whenever it wishes, to manipulate the price of beef and to use its power for its own selfish reasons. If we go below the optimal kill of 30,000 per week, this group has at its disposal feedlots to enable it to feed cattle into the market to manipulate the price and ensure it is kept at the minimum required for its selfish needs. One of them, ABP, made a profit of €170 million in 2018 and has assets worth €3.45 billion. The bulk of its profits were booked in Luxembourg and were largely untaxed. That has been allowed to happen and we have to ask ourselves how the cartels have been allowed to come together to get to where they are now. By the manipulation of the market for their own selfish needs they have managed to eliminate any small or independent operators around the country. We are left with a small number of factories with great power, which includes political power as we have seen in the past, with access to political organisations for their own benefit. We cannot say the market decides this on its own; the groups to which I refer determine the market by fixing prices. I have said time and again in this House that they have access to the database so that they know exactly how many cattle are coming on stream on a weekly and monthly basis and nobody has challenged me on it. Is it legal if a major cartel has feedlots under its control with people feeding cattle into the factories at the optimal time on its behalf? Is it legal for these big companies to take cattle from feedlots and put them into the factory process in order to manipulate the price? I do not think that is legal and it is certainly morally wrong.

Sinn Féin will be supporting the Fianna Fáil motion tomorrow, which we believe is a fair attempt to outline the threats beef farmers face and to articulate the demands that are necessary to resolve the situation. We have submitted three amendments to the motion and I hope Fianna Fáil considers accepting them. The first seeks to establish a beef market observatory which would require processors to publish daily price reports. This is in operation in the United States of America. It is not a silver bullet and certainly does not meet all farmers' demands but it will go some way to ending the manipulation of prices by processors. It would also go some way towards ending the high level of mistrust between farmers and factories, which is the key reason talks continue to stall. Only once greater transparency has been delivered will we be able to see the huge gap between what the consumer pays and what the farmers gets. We will then be able to see who is being ripped off. I hope other parties support this amendment as it will give transparency as well as confidence to farmers and processors.

Our third amendment calls for the study to be carried out and alludes to how the farming family model can be preserved in the face of the increased prevalence of feedlots. I am sure we all know too well the role feedlots have played in the beef sector. I hope we can all agree this is the right time to investigate the matter. We also called for the farmers' charter of rights to be adequately upheld. All these measures are in the interest of all of us, including the consumer and producer. I do not see why the processors or big retail units should have any difficulty outlining what the processors get from the retailers and what the retailers pay the processors. This would result in transparency right across the board. That would be of great benefit in restoring confidence in the sector.

I cannot disagree with the independent farmers and their supporters outside the factories. I fully support them. I support them because they are carrying out an act of last resort to try to protect their livelihood. I fully support them because I come from their type of background and live in rural Ireland. My neighbours are among the protesters. Protestors feel, with great reason, that they have been badly neglected by large farming organisations, which they believe have never acted in their interest. The major farming organisations are currently trying to find a resolution because there is a total disconnect between them and their members. This is because the latter have been betrayed and let down. That is the reality. The big farming organisations have looked after the big farmers and have done nothing for the small beef farmers across rural Ireland. I support the motion of Fianna Fáil and hope it will take our amendments on board.

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