Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 October 2019
446. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans regarding a new regime by factories in which they are reducing the base price for lambs and introducing new penalties by not paying for excess weight over 21.5 kg; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43146/19]
View answerAs the Deputy will be aware, as Minister, I have no role in determining the prices for sheep meat or any other commodity, nor can I directly intervene in the determination of prices. Equally, it is not my role to comment on commercial decisions take by private entities in an open market. The national average price €/100Kgs for the week ending 13th of October was €405.75kg, which is a 3.8% reduction from a price of €421.75 for the same week in 2018.
My Department provides the following supports to the sheep sector, which, I strongly believe, appropriately supports its future development.
I introduced the Sheep Welfare Scheme in December 2016 in order to provide support for sheep farmers in improving welfare standards in the national sheep flock. Participating farmers are paid €10 per eligible ewe, and to date some €36m has issued to farmers in respect of the first two years of the Scheme.
In addition to supports which are available for sheep farmers under the Rural Development Programme, including GLAS, ANCs and Knowledge Transfer Groups, sheep farmers also benefit from the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Greening payments under CAP Pillar I.
I have also made available financial support to sheep farmers for compliance with new sheep EID rules of €100 per farmer.
Market access and market development is a key priority for my Department, and I was delighted to reach agreement with the Japanese authorities on sheepmeat access to Japan during my trade mission to that country in June.
An audit of sheepmeat plants was carried out by Chinese authorities in August, and I hope to progress market access to that market also.
I believe that the current range of supports available to sheep farmers, together with ensuring market access to as many markets as possible, are appropriate supports for the continued development of the sector.
