Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to follow on from the statement by my colleague from Limerick, Senator Kieran O'Donnell, regarding the Mercosur deal. There is exceptional unrest in the beef industry. In the last 18 months it has seen a dramatic deterioration in prices. The proposed Mercosur deal will see an increased volume of beef coming into the European Union, which will also deflate prices. The outlook for the beef industry for the next few months is very poor. If we see the price decline that is predicted for the next few months, we are going to have a real, extended crisis in our industry. The point about Mercosur is that it has come already. The confidence is gone from the market and the suppliers. Beef farmers who came to my clinics last week will not buy weanlings when it comes to the autumn and will not be investing in sheds or in their industry because they do not have the confidence to keep going. That is going to become a serious issue for our suckler and beef industry.

The Minister has been proactive in this space and has said it is a bad deal for the beef industry. We need to start up the momentum of getting our European friends involved in the debate. Our association with France in particular has to be built upon. The Oireachtas, through friendship groups, the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Seanad itself, has to build those connections to ensure we can win support in Europe to get this deal changed. For this to happen, everyone here has to be involved. The Seanad should send a delegation to France and should become a real catalyst of change to ensure we can get those doors opened. We will not change it all by ourselves and it needs to be changed. The confidence of our beef farmers is drained out of their veins in the last few months. This has been the final kick. We need to move into a different space, build alliances and get change. With that, hopefully, we can get what the beef sector requires. Nor is it just about beef. The poultry sector will be decimated and will have no hope if the proposed margin of poultry product comes into the EU. It is about fighting for this section of society and it is about an agricultural split. Dairy will survive but the beef, pig and poultry industries need a change in this deal, otherwise they will be on a slippery slope, and confidence is at rock bottom at the moment.