Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion. Anybody who thinks an ombudsman - and I think the Government is looking that way - will solve anything is delusional. Every day, we all write letters to constituents telling them to go to the Ombudsman. What happens? Nothing. We need a regulator with teeth who can seize computers to find out what is happening.

This time last year, beef was priced at 350 or 360 cent per kilogramme. Today, we have a deficit of 100,000 cattle. There is no four-movement rule at the moment. The authorities do not mind if 24 movements take place. There is also no 30-month rule. All they want is cattle because there is a deficit of 100,000 animals this year and they will pay 415 or 420 cent per kilogramme for an animal aged 36 months or over. Last year, farmers had to have them under 30 months and three movements applied. This just shows what is happening. The beef task force should be abandoned. Introducing weighing scales in factories was spoken about but it never happened. I know of an incident where a grading machine was not working in a factory and it was removed. The Department was supposed to look at that day in and day out. How much of a loss is that to farmers around this country?

I support what the Rural Independent Group has done now that our turn has come. Deputy McNamara and I will put together a Bill regarding a regulator. Deputy McNamara has put in most of the work. I believe that if we do not cut to the chase, there will be one loser in all of this. The farmer is the price taker and the factories and retailers are the price makers. Reports are being produced by people who obviously do not understand too much about the beef industry saying, "Well, they're not making that much out of it". People should look at the price of beef today and last year and the price of beef on the world market. Bring an animal to England today and it will be €250 to €300 for the same animal killed in England as is killed here. If that does not show us that there is something seriously wrong in the market here, we might as well give up.

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