Vol. 498 No. 5
69 Mr. J. Brady asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he has satisfied himself with the level of uptake by beef processors of the measures recently negotiated by him; if he has been in contact with EU Commissioner Fischler seeking an extension of the current intervention and other support arrangements for beef cattle into spring 1999; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27766/98]
I have made it clear on a number of occasions that I am disappointed with the response of the beef processors to the concessions which I negotiated with Commissioner Fischler last October. As regards intervention, the quantities offered were significantly lower than expected. While I take the view that intervention should be used sparingly, I believe that more effective use could and should have been made of the new arrangements. It is also difficult to understand why a greater proportion of the recent significant increase in refunds has not been passed on to producers in the form of higher cattle prices. I do acknowledge that, because of the difficult market situation, prices fell on many third country markets and in that context intervention, even though used sparingly, acted as an important alternative.
In relation to market support in the new year, I made strong representations to Commissioner Fischler last week for an extension of the intervention arrangements. I am pleased that the Commissioner has agreed to their extension and a proposal to this effect was adopted by the beef management committee on 11 December. I believe that these arrangements, combined with relatively strong EU and third country markets, should help to underpin cattle prices at higher levels than those currently prevailing and I have called on the meat processors to react accordingly.
