Vol. 392 No. 3
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if his attention has been drawn to claims of price fixing by a number of meat plants to keep prices paid to farmers down; if he intends to take any action as a result of these allegations; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
53.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will make a statement on the current state of the beef industry; if he is satisfied that the benefits of the APS scheme has permeated down to beef producers; if his attention has been drawn to the serious financial state of many cattle producers; and if he is satisfied with the pricing policy of the meat factories.
73.
(Wexford) and Mr. M. Ahern asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will investigate the allegations of price fixing by the meat factories which seems to be operating at present in relation to the beef industry and which is causing serious financial losses to farmers.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 42, 53, and 73 together.
I am concerned about the present level of cattle prices which are well below the very high levels which applied last year. Compared to earlier years however, this year's prices are higher than those which applied in every other year since 1985. Nevertheless they indicate that producer margins will be very tight especially given the relatively high store prices paid earlier this year. The role of my Department in relation to cattle prices is to ensure that the market supports available under the EC beef regime are applied for the optimum benefit of the Irish beef industry. In this context I got the EC Commission and the Council of Agriculture Ministers to agree last January that special recognition must be given to the importance of the beef industry in our economy. I have pressed the special Irish case at every opportunity. I succeeded in getting agreement to carcase intervention last March to overcome serious difficulties at that time. In September we got agreement to the introduction of an aids to private storage scheme despite strong opposition from other member states. In more recent weeks I have been pressing our case for the need to purchase substantial quantities of beef into intervention. At this week's Council in Luxembourg, where I raised the issue, the Commission recognised that there is a need to implement the Declaration made at the January 1989 Council when tenders from Ireland are being considered. There had already been some success already on this front — at the most recent tenders Ireland got nearly 8,000 tonnes accepted. I would hope that quantities bought in at future tenders during the peak period will be even higher and that the positive signs evident in prices this week will continue. My Department has no direct involvement in relation to the prices paid by factories for cattle. That matter is between individual factories and farmers.
As regards the question regarding the benefits of the APS scheme permeating down to farmers the position is that this scheme is intended to allow factories to purchase beef at the time of peak production and to store it until a more opportune time for marketing it arises. This is of obvious benefit to farmers at this time of the year.
