Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It has been obvious for decades that practices in the meat processing sector have created fortunes for factory owners, with continuing low incomes for all beef farmers from weighmen to sellers to finishers. Beef farmers have consistently been unable to earn a living wage and are only sustained by direct payments from CAP. Factory owners have acted in concert to keep prices to farmers down and in the process, have forced farmer-owned factories out of business. This has led to a de factocabal of private meat factories that using the best financial and taxation advisers have evolved into major property and landowners.

The study of the beef sector being undertaken by Grant Thornton is virtually valueless. Aldi, which is one of the stakeholders, has stated that it believes this is due to the non-engagement of other stakeholders, including retailers. The deck is stacked against the primary producers, with no information on the value of the fifth quarter heights and no requirement on stakeholders to supply all of the information.

Farmers face more and more requirements to meet increasingly stringent requirements imposed by bodies such as Bord Bia and others that deliver no proportionate return to farmers but merely add to the earnings of meat factories and multiple retailers. I have not even mentioned the impact of the feedlots.

Beef production is a vital part of the fabric of the rural economy, particularly in my constituency. Unless we get a beef regulator with statutory powers who will look at the full underlying structure of the beef industry in Ireland, that fabric will unravel. In fact, it has already started.

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