Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus gabhaim leithscéal as gan a bheith anseo agus é ag caint. I apologise for not being present for the Minister's contribution as I was attending a meeting downstairs.

The points raised by Senator Susan O'Keeffe on the cartel are interesting. Certainly a statement on that issue would be useful because there has been a sense that a cartel type arrangement could be in place between the factories dealing with beef processing. Sinn Féin supports the motion. The collapse in beef prices in the past few months has been led by the factories and has caused terrible hardship and desperation around the State.

The crisis is having a severe impact on beef producers, particularly suckler cow farmers. Since the start of the crisis and as far back as when farmers protested outside the gates of Leinster House, the chorus of calls for the establishment of an independent regulator for the beef industry has grown larger and louder.

The meat factories are calling the shots to such an extent that beef producers can no longer be sure that the work plan on which they embarked at the commencement of a particular year will yield a profit at the end of it. The message, which some farm organisations have been putting out for some time, is that the beef processors are too powerful. The latest crisis brings this into sharp focus. An independent regulator with real power to impose a code of practice and with real workable powers of investigation is urgently needed.

The beef industry has become anti-competitive as the beef processors are allowed to call the shots, change their specifications at will and penalise farmers, right, left and centre and so keep prices unsustainably low. Where is the legislation and regulation to control this practice? There are all sorts of regulations in other industries to prevent anti-competitive conduct but there is little to prevent a monopoly or cartel in the beef industry.