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

The Minister has heard that the stakeholders on this side of the House are vehemently opposed to the approach that is being taken which, from its inception, was about maximising the amount of beef that could be shoehorned into a PGI application. The Commissioner at the time said it would be unsuccessful. Unless we focus on suckler beef, that will not happen. The difficulty is that Bord Bia has never distinctly promoted suckler beef because that does not suit the processing industry in this country which wants to get a premium price for manufacturing beef.

Is the Minister sincere about trying to break up the blockage that is there within the beef sector? I believe he is but he must ask the Tánaiste, who has responsibility for business, enterprise and innovation, under section 10(4) of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 to request the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to carry out a market study of the beef industry in this country. That does not require any evidence and can be done at the stroke of a pen. We will see how transparent the industry is at that stage.

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