Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No 1:

To insert the following after "which is likely to negatively impact rural development and the agri-food sector.":

"— establish a beef market observatory from which each processor is legally compelled to publish daily price reports to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine regarding:— the prices for cattle (euros per kilogram) established on that day, categorised by:

— type of purchase;

— the quantity of cattle purchased;

— a range of the estimated live weights of the cattle purchased;

— an estimate of the percentage of the cattle purchased that were of a quality grade of choice or better; and

— any premiums or discounts associated with:

— weight, grade or yield; or

— any type of purchase; and

— the quantity of cattle delivered to the processor (quoted in numbers of herd) on that day, categorised by:

— type of purchase;

— the quantity of cattle delivered on a live weight basis; and

— the quantity of cattle delivered on a dressed weight basis; and

calls on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to make the information available to the public every reporting day."

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this important motion. For decades now, rural Ireland has been damaged and neglected by successive Government policies. The evidence of this can be seen in the closure of banks, health centres, marts and many other important facilities across the country. Broadband remains unavailable and in many parts of the country public transport is almost non-existent. Parts of the midlands region is in danger of becoming a rust belt owing to a lack of investment or serious job creation projects. God knows how much longer rural Ireland will have to wait for broadband. Provision in this regard has been a total mess owing to the privatisation by this Government and its predecessors of Eir and the current botched procurement process. This matter needs to be addressed now.

We are in the midst of a severe crisis within the beef sector as family farms across rural Ireland face the threat of closure. Fine Gael has been in government for eight years now and rural Ireland has never felt so isolated and under pressure. I thank the Rural Independent Group for proposing this motion, which fairly accurately reflects what is happening.

Sinn Féin has tabled an amendment to the motion, which I hope the Rural Independent Group and others in this House will consider supporting. It is about transparency in pricing. There has been much talk here over the past 20 minutes about transparency. The Sinn Féin amendment provides parties across the House with an opportunity to support it.

A major issue now in the beef sector is the lack of trust between the processors and the farmers. We need to deal with that issue and the Sinn Féin amendment is a serious attempt to do that.

There are issues such as the base price for which we cannot legislate. The factories have a role to play in setting a fair beef price. The deal that was agreed, while not perfect, represents progress but it needs to be built on. Much is dependent on the setting of a fair base price. We need to underpin transparency with legislation. The Bill put forward by Sinn Féin provides for transparency between the processor and the primary producer.

Currently, a small group of powerful cartel-like processors are taking advantage of a system in which farmers are denied basic information. The Sinn Féin amendment calls on the Government to establish a beef market observatory which would require processors to publish daily price reports. I raised this issue last week with the Minister, Deputy Creed, and Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, when they assured me that would give serious consideration to the proposed legislation. I hope that they will reiterate that on the record today. We understand the legislation is not a silver bullet and it certainly does not meet all the farmers' demands but it would go some way towards ending the manipulation of prices and rebuilding the vital trust that is needed. It would also address a lot of the key issues in the sector.

I support the call in the motion for a commitment to introduce a framework for producer organisations in the beef sector. Time will tell whether these producer organisations are the answer. Farmers are divided on the issue. Some farmers have told me that they will not work but we must give them a chance. I have never seen a situation where a combination has been bad. There is always strength in numbers, whether workers, farmers or any other group. Currently, we have an Independent Farmers of Ireland producer organisation and we are soon to have a beef farmers of Ireland producer organisation. It is very important that we find a way to allow farmers to negotiate on a level playing field with processors and the producer organisation provides an opportunity for small and medium sized farmers to come together to fight as a collective.

What we need now from the Minister and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is the putting in place of the relevant technical support and legislation to ensure that these farmers are given the best opportunity possible to make the system work and to build on the deal that has been negotiated.

I want now to touch on the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP. Previously, we had a system of farm payments which was based on historical entitlements, which served only to preserve inequality as some farmers received more per hectare than others. There are huge variations in terms of what farmers receive in payments. We need to address this issue. Sinn Féin has long supported an upper limit of €60,000 per annum for basic payments, with farmers having the option of topping up their payments through participation in environmental schemes. This would allow for front-loaded payments for the development of small and medium sized farms. It would offer additional supports proportionally for those small and medium sized farms and it would also reward farmers for good environmental practices and build on some of the existing schemes. It is disappointing that the Government continues to advocate for direct payments to be capped at €100,000, with loopholes that will allow payments above this limit. Some of the beef processing factories are claiming these benefits. This is deeply unjust.

We need to be focus our attention on new income streams for farmers and rural Ireland. Renewable energy development, in particular biomass and biogas, present us with a huge opportunity in this regard. The Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, is interested in forestry. There is a huge opportunity that we need to grab with both hands. Bord na Móna imports biomass from South America. There is land around the power stations in west Offaly, Edenderry and Lanesborough that could be used to grow biomass. There is a surplus of straw this year. Straw is the second best fuel for use in biomass. There are huge opportunities in the forestry sector. I would like the Government to give serious consideration to the opportunities in solar, small-scale wind and, in some case, hydro energy. We accept that Bord na Móna has to move away from peat production but this has to happen in a sustainable and fair way. We need to have a fair and just transition.

The biomass supply chains have the potential to replace peat production and to fuel the three midlands power stations. Hundreds of new jobs can be created in the midlands with renewable energy development. We need to give this serious consideration. I have brought forward several policy papers and Bills in this area. We also have a very large agricultural sector which creates an abundance of slurry, animal and crop waste. This waste can be used to produce biogas which is a renewable source of energy. Germany has over 6,000 biogas plants. England has 600 and Ireland has only one feeding in the grid, which is the Billy Costello facility in Nurney. We need the Government to start thinking about the future of rural Ireland and to begin the process of developing other income streams for farmers. As we move away from the current situation, farmers and all of us, Opposition and Government, must start thinking about the creation of new income streams. It is not sustainable into the future for us to compete with other countries where farmers are not dependent on beef or dairy and have supplementary incomes from energy and other sources.

We do not want the Government to be commentators and we should not be commentators. We must all be active around this and create new jobs and new sources of energy. In the short term, I urge the Government to play its part to make sure the deal agreed between the beef processors and the farmers is built on and implemented in full so we can ensure the future of beef farming in this country.

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