Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am aware that during a debate on the challenges facing the beef sector in the Dáil on 18 September 2019, the Deputy tabled an amendment to a motion, agreed to on 26 September, proposing that the CCPC carry out a market study and analysis on the nature and scale of beef farming issues in the beef market and make recommendations. A request for the CCPC to undertake a market study or analysis under section 10(4) of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014 is not a substitute for the commission undertaking its statutory functions by investigating an alleged breach of competition laws that are used by the commission in different situations.

In 2019, the CCPC received a significant number of complaints about the beef sector and, as a result, commenced a detailed, extensive examination. The majority of the complaints related to five core issues: the similarity in the base price per kg offered by processors to beef farmers across all beef processing plants, dissatisfaction with the qualitative criteria for the payment of in-spec bonuses applied by beef processors to the importing of foreign beef, the operation of feedlots, distortion of competition and the impact of a reported monopoly in offal processing.

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