Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this important debate and I thank Fianna Fáil for bringing forward the motion.

The Government will continue to be deeply committed to supporting and developing Ireland's beef sector. I am keenly aware that the past few months have been very challenging for beef farmers and their families following a difficult year for farm incomes in 2018 due to very bad weather conditions. There was a prolonged and exceptional period of depressed prices lasting from autumn 2018 to spring 2019, with the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the outcome of Brexit among other factors contributing to this market disturbance.

Over the weekend, significant efforts were made to reach a resolution to the current dispute after lengthy and very tough negotiations. Leaders of all of the main farming organisations and representatives of farmers who were still protesting agreed to recommend an agreement to their members and those at factory gates. The agreement is a compromise. Nobody got everything they wanted. As Members opposite will be aware, it was not legally possible to discuss base price but the agreement contains a number of commitments relating to new and increased bonus payments that will have an immediate impact for farmers and, more importantly, a detailed package that also includes a number of commitments around transparency and fairness in the supply chain which in time will deliver greater certainty and clarity for farmers, which is what is needed. In truth, we need to restructure the beef sector in a way that is farmer friendly, supports family farms for the future and empowers farmers to be able to negotiate with a lot more power and weight with the factories to which they are selling.

As the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine stated, we are at a critical tipping point in this dispute, and I do not say that lightly, as somebody who is passionate about the agrifood sector and about farming. A significant number of employees have been temporarily laid off and more are on the protective notice. Farmers with finished stock have no outlet for their produce and the continued premium position of Irish beef on supermarket shelves both at home and abroad is under threat if this dispute continues. I said today to many farmers to whom I spoke at the National Ploughing Championships that I believe we are very close to a point where we may do damage that is irreversible to this sector if we are not careful. I urge all the farmers continuing to protest and to mount blockades to consider the agreement that was negotiated on their behalf in detail. It will not deliver everything they want overnight but it is a basis for a way forward and it puts farmers in a stronger position in the supply chain.

I was at the National Ploughing Championships for a number of hours today and even though it was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and it was probably the best organised ploughing match that I have ever been at in terms of getting in and getting out, there was tension in the air. There was anger among many farmers. There was a sense that there was a real absence of trust between farmers and factories. That tension clearly is what we are seeing at the gates of many factories still. People are desperate. They are producing cattle, and have been doing so now for many months, for a price that is below the cost of production and we know that is not sustainable. Given the other challenges that are also on the horizon for the beef sector, particularly around Brexit, for which I have a specific responsibility in the context of protecting the agrifood sector and farming during these negotiations, we need to be really careful we do not do significant damage here that makes the other challenges we may face in six weeks' time even more difficult to face. I would ask farmers to think about that. That is not saying we do not feel their anger, pain and utter frustration in many cases.

We do. The farm leaders who have negotiated on their behalf understand that too but they are willing to recommend this deal because it is a basis for a way forward. It is not an end in itself. It is a means to deliver a better beef sector that can, as I stated earlier, empower farmers to be able to demand not only better prices by negotiating collectively through producer organisations, but also better conditions around the timing of delivery, etc., as opposed to simply being price takers at a time when factories want their product. The whole point of producer organisations is to try to equalise that relationship in terms of how and when supply happens, at what cost and under what conditions. That is essentially what we need to try to create in this sector.

The Government is trying to provide three key pillars for beef and the beef sector in the future to ensure that family farming remains a key feature, and in many ways the heartbeat, of rural Ireland into the future. The first is there needs to be decent financial support coming from Government and from the EU. This is a deal, essentially, between food consumers and food producers, where taxpayers need to pay farmers to ensure that the standards of environmental protection and food safety, and animal husbandry considerations, etc., are part of the food chain. I have always argued that the CAP is a great deal for taxpayers and consumers given the quality of the food that they get in return for it. The second area is about producer organisations, which I am a big believer in, and the third is to ensure that we continue to diversify and develop new markets internationally.

Looking at financial supports, I do not have time to talk about all the different schemes that are in place now but they are significant. They range from the beef data and genomics programmes to a €4 billion rural development programme, direct payments under CAP and GLAS, areas of natural constraints, ANCs, etc. When there are specific challenges to the sector, as we have seen from the impact of Brexit even though it has not yet happened, that has driven prices down. We have seen an exceptional aid measure come forward from the European Commission - a fund, of course, that was matched by the Irish taxpayer also.

As we negotiate a future CAP, we need to ensure that we protect the budget as best we can. The proposed 5% cut in the budget is something that we, along with many other EU countries, are anxious and determined to try to reverse to ensure that we still have a CAP package for the next period of CAP of approximately €12 billion to support rural economies, farmers and farm families as we have done in the past.

Producer organisations are something that, when I was Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, we were talking about and trying to generate. We had a beef forum then too where we looked at all the issues that were discussed and debated, and in some cases agreed in terms of new thinking, on Sunday last. At that time, we were talking about the need to empower farmers as a collective. There is not much point in having 70,000 beef farmers, and another 30,000 who have some beef as part of their farm operations, if they are all individual price-takers selling animals, one by one, into the factories when the factories want them, when there is not an oversupply, etc. Farmers have the power in their hands if they organise in a way that creates a collective strength. One cannot have one producer organisation - that would be anti-competitive - but one can certainly have five or six where there are large numbers of farmers with a professional management team managing the sale of their produce, negotiating directly with factories around conditions and price. That can empower the producer in a way that we have never seen previously. That is something that we have to make work, in particular, with farming organisations, but also individual farmers. We know that works. If one looks at the impact on the dairy side of co-operatives in how they work, lobby and guarantee certain price floors, etc., for their members, we can do the same with producer organisations in beef, and the facilities are there to do that, and the next round of the Common Agricultural Policy can financially support that too in terms of the cost of setting them up. I would encourage enthusiasm, but also making it a priority for Government to deliver on the potential of producer organisations, and we already have one fully recognised.

The other point I would make is in terms of market development. I compliment the Minister, Deputy Creed, and, indeed, the Minister of State, Deputy Andrew Doyle, on this. Since April 2017, we have seen beef access into China. We have seen beef, as well as pork, access into the Ukraine. We have seen beef and sheepmeat, and poultry, access into Qatar and Kuwait and we have seen significant steps forward in terms of Japan, Israel, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and South Africa. The work continues but we face an immediate crisis.

The question is, can we collectively solve it in the interests of farmers and their future so that we can look ahead to the next challenge on the horizon that we face linked to Brexit? Believe me, it is a big challenge. In my view, together we can overcome that too, but we need to get over the immediate challenges we face today that seriously threaten the viability of this sector.

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