Sir, I am obliged to you for allowing me to raise this matter and have the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry clarify the implications of the beef management committee meeting of last Friday for the beef industry. The Minister will be aware of the widespread concern about the situation that has developed in the past number of months and which is causing a deepening crisis in the beef sector, not only for producers but for processors. He will also be aware of the implications that will have on agricultural incomes in the months ahead.
The Minister, Deputy Yates, contends that last week's decision of the beef management committee to increase a band of 5 per cent to 7 per cent to restore the level of export refunds was an interim one. Is that correct, given that the decision is final for the duration of the current price regime which expires in April? I understand that the agreement reached by the Minister's representative at that committee meeting, which he regards as inadequate, is to be extended until April, thus depriving us of the opportunity to negotiate for much needed further increases to restore export refund levels.
Any change after April will be no comfort to the many specialised winter finishers who have effectively been abandoned because of the serious reduction in export refund levels so far.
The Minister bears full responsibility for the huge mistake of allowing the beef management committee off the political leash. Coming into this round of export refund cuts the Minister held the high ground when, last April, the Council of Ministers took the decision on the guide price for beef for the coming year to next April. This is a matter of political incompetence. The Minister has failed to stop Commission officials undermining the political decision of the Council, leaving us in a much more disadvantageous position than any other EU beef producers.
Because of the appalling handling of relations with the Commission and lack of support from other Ministers, a bureaucratic committee with no political mandate has effectively slashed the price of beef as a result of the export refund cuts and the crisis of confidence it has generated in the market place. The Minister's failure to go to Brussels in advance of last Friday's decision is unpardonable, he is so preoccupied with being a big fish in a small pond at home he has not learned that in Brussels he is very small fry indeed.
His histrionic and long-distance grandstanding with the Commission has cost Irish agriculture dearly. In his statement last Friday, the Minister suggested this would have a great psychological effect on farmers. This is the first time I have ever heard a Government Minister claim that psychology will pay the bills between now and April.
The Minister must repair relations with the EU Commission and the Council. Continually finding ourselves in a minority of one, as we have with this Minister, represents a complete political failure to transact the necessary business and defend our national interests. Over 100,000 farmers are affected by these decisions which have been taken since last October. All we have had from the Minister are statements reacting to these decisions expressing his own surprise at the level of export refund cuts and suggesting there is little or nothing he can do about it.
Farmers have been the losers in this stand-off. Winter finishers, losing well over £70 a head on cattle bought last autumn, have been abandoned because there will be no further discussion on this matter until April. By then, of course, at least 50 per cent of the winter kill will have been completed. This affects cattle farmers who simply have to dispose of their cattle having bought them in the autumn for the purpose of finishing them over the winter.
A serious situation has developed and the Minister seems incapable of doing anything about it. The "too little, too late" measures adopted in Brussels last Friday, and which are acknowledged by the Minister himself as being inadequate, may have provided a psychological boost to him but they have done nothing for the beef industry. The political challenge to the Minister is to develop a cohesive Irish agenda in Brussels and build support for our position in the Council and the Commission.
I would like to know to what extent the Minister has any room to manoeuvre between now and April given that the beef management committee has suggested there will be no change in the level of export refunds until April. The Minister's failure to think beyond the next news bulletin has brought totally avoidable losses to the beef industry.