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

I accept the importance of providing that verification to customers. However, the Minister has been asked to provide that verification to Parliament and he cannot do that. There is something fundamentally wrong with the system if he cannot provide Parliament with the figures that he says are being provided to customers. They are being provided to customers but not to the elected representatives of every farmer throughout the country. That is fundamentally flawed.

The Minister is asking suckler farmers to sign up to the Bord Bia quality assurance scheme. As he knows, the vast majority of suckler farmers do not finish cattle. They do not get a quality assurance payment for culled cows which is usually the only animals they bring to a processing facility.

Why then is the Minister asking them to do this now? Will he explain why the Bord Bia quality assurance scheme does not transfer from farm to farm? They have to be left for 60 days. It seems to me that when a carcase spends 60 minutes in the back of a truck, it is quality assured.

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