Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission for organising the all-Ireland food fair to which we were all invited last week in the Members' Restaurant. It was a treat for the senses and the food was absolutely fantastic. I particularly want to single out the Mayo Mountain Blackface Sheep Breeders group who were represented on that occasion by Pat Chambers of Newport and Peter Chambers, who is involved with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is a fantastic success story with a lot more potential. It is a producer group from the west of Ireland with 350 members who sell premium breeding stock and factory lambs. The group works with the Kildare Chilling Company to supply finished lambs. This business has grown from processing 2,000 lambs in 2012 to processing 25,000 lambs in 2018. This means a great and fantastic deal to the local economy. It encompasses a great geographical spread in Mayo including the Nephin Beg wilderness on the Wild Atlantic Way and from Toormakeady to Bangor Erris. There is a lot of species-rich grassland there upon which this particular breed of blackface sheep roam. I believe this to be a unique selling point. This is the way our primary producers need to go to maximise the value for their product. I also compliment the South West Mayo Development Company and the rural social scheme there, along with the breeders and the group secretary, Breege Biggins. It is a real success story that I wanted to highlight. They have a product they can stand over and they need support in promotion so they can go further afield. I sincerely hope they get that.