asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries if he will make a comprehensive statement on the up-to-date position with regard to the revision of monetary charges which are penalising Irish beef exports to third countries.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Beef Exports.
14.
The extended export restitutions which the Community brought into operation on 21st January have the effect of cancelling fully the monetary export charge on our exports of frozen boneless beef to the United States, and giving a net export payment on our exports of other frozen beef to Portugal and Mediterranean third countries, and reducing the monetary charge on most of our remaining beef exports to third countries.
Would the Minister be able to say what action, if any, he proposes to take to see that the £57 export rebate will be passed on to the farmers?
We discussed this yesterday. I do not know if the Deputy was here.
I was.
There is little I can do, in a situation where we have twice the number of cows on the market as we had last year and a limited processing capacity, to compel the factories to pay more. They are buying in a buyer's market and there is little I can do to compel them to pay more.
I agree with the Minister that there are twice as many cows in the country this year but surely this is the result of the Minister's and the Government's actions?
That we have more cattle?
(Interruptions.)
How the Deputy has arrived at this is a mystery to me.
I would not agree that the Minister is responsible for the increased number of cattle; he can do things fast but not that fast. Is the number of cows now coming on the market not a reflection of the reduction of the beef subsidy scheme which we tried to keep at its previous high level but which the Minister would not hear of a year ago and now says he cannot do because EEC will not let him?
I would say it has no effect whatever, and I think the Deputy knows that.
The Minister used the phrase "a buyer's market". Where does the guaranteed price to the producer stand in this? I understood the EEC provided a guaranteed price.
The EEC does not provide a guaranteed price; it provides an intervention price for seven categories of beef, and it is only quite recently that one grade of cow has been brought into that.