Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will start by paying tribute to the independent beef farmers and the Beef Plan Movement for their magnificent campaign over recent weeks and over the course of the summer. They have highlighted the absolutely intolerable and unacceptable levels of income which they are expected to endure despite producing a beef product of extremely high quality. I am shocked by these income levels. Until I met representatives of the Beef Plan Movement before the summer, I did not know that anybody working to produce such a product could be expected to survive on such a level of income. It is absolutely shocking. Average incomes are €12,000 and many are on €10,000 or €8,000 a year. It is a scandal.

From what I can see having heard from them, their scepticism and mistrust regarding the good faith of the beef barons, processors and retailers and some of the governmental agencies and bodies that are supposed to be trying to address this issue are perfectly understandable.

I am not saying that any of the Fianna Fáil Deputies present is saying it, but there is a narrative floating around to the effect that all this would be sorted if farmers just pulled back from the gate. From what I understand, they do not want to be there. They have been forced to the gate, and they are staying there because they do not trust the processors, retailers and various agencies of Government to ensure their interests.

The key is the base price, which has decreased. One of the farmers I spoke to just before entering the Chamber told me of losses of between €200 to €250 per animal over the past couple of years. Contrary to what has been suggested in some of the discourse, retail beef prices have actually increased in some parts of Europe during the period in question. Farmers are asking a simple question - if what they are getting is going down while retail beef prices are increasing, where is the money going? They conclude that it is going into the hands of the beef processors, who control the price and the market, and the retailers, all of whom are making large profits. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to see that. Goodman's various companies have seen €175 million in profits. Frankly, I am amazed. One of the first issues that I ever got involved in was protesting around the issues that led to the beef tribunal - export credit insurance, rotten beef to Iraq and so on. It is amazing that some of those involved are still around, controlling the beef sector, making massive profits and, as we recently discovered, routing quite an amount of those profits through Luxembourg, a tax haven. In effect, they are a cartel controlling the industry and the prices while beef farmers are on an abysmal income. Look at the large retailers in this country. We do not even know how much profit Tesco makes, as it does not declare its Irish profits, but it is making lots of money. Aldi, McDonald's and so on are making a great deal of money. The answer to the question about where the money is going is that it is going to them.

One of the questions I was requested to ask concerned the exceptional aid scheme. Will the Minister of State assure us that it is not benefitting these companies? Is it going to the farmers who are struggling? They want to know because they are suspicious. Just like CAP, it is shocking that these companies, which are making that level of profit and funnelling profits through tax havens and so on, are getting CAP payments when the small producer is struggling to survive. There is a suspicion among beef farmers that this entire situation has been engineered and the companies want to shut down many of the small beef producers and move things elsewhere. Hence the kerfuffle about the talk of Bord Bia giving quality assurance to plants in the North and, apparently, the rest of the UK for slaughtering Irish cattle, since doing so might work better for the beef processors if there is a no-deal Brexit because tariffs on live cattle exports are much less than on the manufactured product. If cattle are sent over the Border to be slaughtered in the North, lower tariffs will be applied and Irish products will be sold into Britain, where 50% of our market lies.

Is this all being engineered by our friends in the cartel to drive the small producer out of business completely? Historically, the trajectory of farming, rural economies and so on has been one of centralisation, the creation of monopolies and the destruction of the small producer. We used to call this "enclosures". That is what happens. Will serious action be taken to protect the small producer? Will supports, subsidies, exceptional aid schemes and so on be directed so as to ensure incomes, fairness and transparency around prices, where the money is going, who is making the profit and so on? The meat industry cartel people do not want to own up to that, but the facts seem to speak for themselves.

As others have alluded to, beef farmers just want to be told by the producer organisations or the processors that there will be a minimum price of €3.80 per kilo. There would be nothing illegal if the processors said it. They set the price anyway - let us be honest. If the processors said that they would give farmers a minimum of €3.80 per kilo, this situation could be resolved. Look at the profits that Larry Goodman is making. He can afford it. In terms of the narrative around this situation, that is where the Government's pressure should be directed. These farmers do not want to be out on the picket line, but they do not trust the big players, the people who control the market or the agencies. I understand that there was a kerfuffle at the ploughing championships because people felt that Bord Bia giving quality assurance to plants in the North and so on was part of a stitch-up of producers in response to the protests of recent weeks.

I stand with the farmers. The onus is on the large processors and retailers that are making lots of money and on the Government to ensure that farmers get a fair price and fair incomes for the work they do and the incredible and important role they play in holding rural Ireland together and maintaining the Irish rural economy. Let us show them some respect.

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