Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I call on him to take two specific measures in the short term. Pending the establishment of the task force, and even if the task force is established, these measures can provide progress in this area. The Ministers for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Business, Enterprise, and Innovation have the power to ask the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to carry out a market study of the beef industry here. Such a study should not be left to the task force and should be carried out now. It should be used as a vehicle to provide assistance and support to the beef task force and to identify where there are weaknesses within the competition beef sector.

Will the Minister explain the position as regards efforts to secure protected geographical indication status for grass-fed suckler beef? I note from a reply the Minister provided last week that an application will be submitted for Irish grass-fed beef but that suckler beef has been left out. As he is aware, the former Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Hogan, has made it clear that the application should be for suckler beef and not only grass-fed beef.

See this speech in context