Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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290. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to reconvene the beef forum, given recent developments in the beef market and given that some factories are reverting to unfair practices on issues such as weight penalties, which caused serious difficulties in the beef supply chain in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42843/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The next meeting of the Beef Roundtable has provisionally been arranged to take place on 16 December next.

I established the Roundtable last year for the purpose of bringing all sectoral stakeholders together and facilitating open discussion between industry, farming organisations and others on the strategic path forward for the beef sector. The Forum has met on six occasions and stakeholders have agreed to a broad range of outcomes which address issues of concern for the sector in areas such as weight and age specifications, the Quality Payment system, live exports and producer organisations. At the November Roundtable last year, agreement was reached between MII and farm bodies on a range of outcomes covering a range of aspects in the beef sector. I expect all of the participants at the Beef Roundtable to adhere to the agreements reached.

Questions of price and market specifications are matters to be determined solely between the purchasers and the sellers of cattle. Prices paid for cattle are determined by supply and demand market dynamics and by a range of other factors such as disposable income, consumer preferences and competition from other meats and sources of protein. As with any Minister for Agriculture in the EU, I can have no role in influencing commodity prices in Ireland. I do note however that 2015 has been a relatively positive year for beef prices in Ireland with the yearly average to date up 8% on last year.

Of course, the best interests of this very important industry will ultimately be served by ensuring a continuing supply of high quality cattle to the processing sector, and, subject to market context, this objective can be best achieved by providing a reasonable level of remuneration to suppliers for their efforts. I would also encourage processors to ensure that their systems for determining price are as open and transparent as possible to the farmer and that any adjustments or changes regarding specification criteria are clearly communicated and have regard to the realities of the production cycle.