Kevin O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To get farmers to change their practices creates fierce capital costs. We do not want a scene with no beef producers because we want to make sure there are dealers still around the mart rings to buy the cows from the farmers. If we lose them, this country is in big trouble. It is not so many years ago that some well-known beef processors were in financial difficulties and the word was that a cheque from Anglo-Irish Beef Processors, AIBP, would definitely bounce. Beef processors have come a long way since, and maybe the competition authority should have been more proactive in ensuring that a cartel situation was not in the making. One has to ask if there is a cartel there. I see hauliers today taking loads of livestock - beef, cattle - from Cork all the way to Donegal for a better price. The haulage costs are covered. However, the big processors in the south of Ireland do not seem to be able to buy these cattle. I ask the Minister of State to go back to Meat Industry Ireland to see if something can be done to get protestors off the picket lines. Many livelihoods are at stake. I must mention the factory workers who also provide an invaluable contribution to local economies.

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