Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 26 Jun 2001

Vol. 539 No. 1

Written Answers. - Beef Task Force.

Willie Penrose

Question:

139 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the progress which has been made at his Department regarding implementing the recommendations of the report of the beef task force; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19030/01]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (Mr. Walsh)

The beef task force monitoring committee is responsible for implementing those recommendations in the report of the task force relating to export promotion, price transparency, graded pricing and mechanical classification. Considerable progress had been made within the monitoring committee on the establishment of a voluntary beef promotion fund by the end of 1999 but this was put on hold following the dispute between meat factories and producers last year. As far as price transparency is concerned, my Department publishes, on a weekly basis, cattle prices paid by named individual meat factories. However, it has not been possible to secure agreement between the beef producers and beef processors on a market price transparency system.

With regard to graded pricing and mechanical classification, the task assigned to the monitoring committee is to review progress in these areas. Primary responsibility for the implementation of a graded pricing system rests with the beef processing industry itself and, while I appreciate that some progress has been made in this area, I believe bigger differentials are needed to encour age the production of the type of high quality beef in demand on the European market. As regards mechanical classification, my Department, in conjunction with three developers from Denmark, Australia and Germany, organised a trial last year to test the accuracy of three machines in classifying carcases against the EUROP carcase classification scale and in estimating meat yield. The trial showed that mechanical classification has potential but needs to be improved if it is to replace visual assessment. Further progress in this area cannot take place until the results of another test being carried out by the EU in Germany in September are available. Experts from my Department will be participating in the pilot test.

The task force recommended that public funds should be provided for an industry and development programme involving capital expenditure for new facilities and the suppression of capacity which is surplus to requirements. The Government has already decided in the context of the national development plan to give priority to investments in the beef sector of this nature. An operational programme to give effect to this has been published. It is now a matter for the industry itself to come forward with appropriate projects.

The recommendations relating to the need for an improvement in the quality of cattle through better breeding and husbandry practices are being implemented by Teagasc and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation, who have intensified their efforts to promote the development of qualify breeding by producers. However, in the final analysis, producers' decisions in this area will be based on the extent to which prices paid by beef processors reward quality production. This is primarily a matter for the industry itself.