Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to bring forward this motion tonight, along with my colleagues in the Rural Independent Group, to address the ongoing and much-publicised issues facing the beef sector. Over the past eight years since Fine Gael came into government, beef farmers have experienced huge price volatility. It is our belief that the Government stood idly by and did nothing to assist the struggling family farms. Despite many pledges and promises by Ministers for Agriculture, Food and the Marine during that time and commitments set down programme for Government, farmers have received no assistance in their pursuit for processor price transparency.

Another example of the Government’s contempt for beef farmers is the fact that myself and colleagues in the Rural Independent Group called on the Government to reconvene and have an emergency sitting as soon as farmers began to stand outside the gates of processing factories across the country. That call was ignored and it was seven weeks before we, as Deputies, had an opportunity to address this crisis in the Dáil Chamber. That is shameful.

I stood with farmers and their families at factories gates. Their message is simple. All they want is a fair price for their hard work and produce. These are decent hard working people, many of whom have never been on the picket line in their life. They did not want to be there but they felt they had no other choice as no one was listening.

Without immediate intervention and action by the Government, rural development will continue to be under threat due to an avoidable destabilisation of the beef sector export market caused by the delay in realising commitments provided for in the programme for a partnership Government. We in the Rural Independent Group call on the Government to lay out a clear pathway toward avoiding the deepening of threats to rural development by honouring the commitments in the programme for a partnership Government with respect to introducing a framework for producer organisations and the development of producer organisations.

We demand that the Government renew its promises in the charter for rural Ireland. This charter outlined a vision of a “dynamic, adaptable and outward looking multi-sectoral economy supporting vibrant, resilient and diverse communities”. That is what we all want to see in rural Ireland. We also believe that the Government must explore the merits of introducing a system of fixed-price contracts for beef producers in order to diminish the price volatility experienced by farmers.

It would not cost the Government a great deal to resolve the crisis but it would have to tackle the large retailers, which it does not want to do, and it would have to tackle the factories, which it does not want to touch. We, the farmers of Ireland, and I have a conflict of interest in that I am a farmer, and the citizens of this country need an independent investigation into the goings on inside our factories and it needs to be done quickly. A full report must be published and criminal proceedings must be brought against any wrong-doers whoever they may be if wrong-doing is going on. It might sound strong but the farmers of this country deserve it. For far too long the farmers were silent. They assumed they should get the meat weight of the animal but how wrong they were. For the first 40 minutes, when an average weight animal is slaughtered, 45 people work on that animal. Imagine 45 people working on a slaughtered average sized animal. What could be so valuable that there would be 45 people working on it in 40 minutes. That animal is hugely valuable; every part of it is sold. The blood has a value for making red and white protein powder in Craigavon. It is alleged that every farmer's details are on computers in factories. What about GDPR? Are all our details freely available? This is very controlling. Does the House know that there is a value of the cow's udder or that there is 20 kg of meat on the cow's head? When cutting the carcass, fat is used for soap and shaving foam. Does the Minister of State know exactly what goes on in the bone halls of these factories? Does he know what really happens? I would like to know what really happens to poor quality animals. There is a market for the tongue, for the throat, and I could go on forever. Nobody wants to know about this. The farmer gets €700 or €800 for the animal but the man inside the factory is making hundreds on hundreds of euro, perhaps running into thousands of euro, on the animal and yet there is nobody willing to stand up for the farmer. These farmers have wised up strongly.

One thing the farmers were strong about last week was that they wanted a base price.

The factories, the Minister, the State, and all the powers that be were telling everybody to leave the gates, but nobody was willing to tackle the issue that the farmer could not get an improvement on the base price. I stood with the farmers in Bandon mainly - I was in Cahir as well - nearly every day of the protest. Sometimes I gave them ten minutes and sometimes I gave them two or three hours. The one cry from these genuine men and women, and young children who had an interest in the future of their farms, was that they were being terribly wronged and they were going out of business. These are honest to God people. They are not the type of people who would usually go protesting but they knew this was the only channel left to them. They will be back because nothing will happen. The power of the factories and the large retailers has taken over this country. Statements that were being continually made through this protest by Minister after Minister were totally in line with the statements the factories were making, so who is talking on behalf of the farmer? That is what we need to know. We need to know that soon and we need action on the ground. In the next few weeks we will be watching every movement that goes on in this Government on that issue.

See this speech in context