Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. Obviously sheep prices are at an unsustainable level. It is not really profitable to be engaged in sheep farming at the moment and that needs to change. I heard Deputy Ó Cathasaigh say earlier that we need to work towards developing producer groups and I very much agree with him on that. He cited Connemara lamb as a very good example of how added value can be obtained. Unfortunately, however, with regard to geographical areas of origin, the Department's approach has been quite different in the beef sector. The approach has been to try to develop a national system which effectively hands control over the entire process and any profits that will be obtained from it to the beef processors. That is something I would urge the Department to re-examine with regard to beef and certainly not to do the same in the sheep sector because that is not what the geographical areas of origin were intended to achieve. It does not benefit the producers. The intention of the geographical areas of origin was to benefit producers and consumers but neither benefit from the approach taken with regard to beef.

There is an urgent need to look at the costs of sheep production and to try to meet those on a temporary basis while other measures are taking effect. The IFA has called, not unreasonably, for the Department to consider payments of €30 per ewe rather than the €12 which has been agreed to date. Lamb and sheep prices are currently entirely unsustainable and large tracts of rural Ireland depend on them.

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