asked the Minister for Agriculture why the coefficient for calculating the MCA on frozen beef was not changed in line with that on chilled beef.
Ceisteanna—Questions . Oral Answers . - Frozen Beef MCA .
18.
: As part of the price package agreed by the Council of Agricultural Ministers for 1978-79, I succeeded in obtaining agreement for a substantial increase in the coefficient for calculating the MCA on chilled boneless beef. In addition, the EEC Commission undertook to examine the other MCA coefficients, including the frozen boneless beef coefficient, with a view to establishing if these coefficients also give rise to trade distortion and should likewise be altered.
: Why was the Minister not able to have a decision taken on frozen beef in the same way he was able to get a decision on chilled beef? Is there an appreciable difference in the situation?
: In the case of frozen beef, it is blatantly obvious that an immediate adjustment in the coefficient was a pressing necessity. The really important matter was the changing of the coefficient in the case of chilled meat for the first time in several years. That was a major breakthrough for the meat industry. At the same time we did get an undertaking from the Commission that the coefficients for frozen beef would also be examined. It is worth remembering that in the submission of the Fresh Meat Exporters' Society to the European Commission, made a few weeks before the actual price-fixing meeting, little or no reference was made to frozen beef.
: Would I be correct in believing that the Minister is aware that frozen beef represents about 30 per cent of our dead beef exports and is a significant export? If it is suffering from a handicap, the Minister should be aware of this independently of any submission of an outside body to the Commission.
: I did not grasp the import of the Deputy's question.
: I am asking why the Minister did not do something about the matter himself. Why is he falling back on some alleged defect in a submission made to the Commission by the Fresh Meat Exporters?
: I did do something about the matter, Deputy, something that needed to be done for several years in the case of chilled meat. In the case of frozen beef, I did get an undertaking from the Commission that this coefficient as well as other coefficients would be reviewed in due course. I do not anticipate that the review will take long. One undeniable result of the failure of the Commission to review the chilled beef coefficient over the last two or three years was that the only effective boning that was going on here was boning for intervention. The job content of the new coefficient and the opportunity it offers the meat trade in the market place should be a source of a great many jobs.
: Would the Minister not agree that we had a stronger bargaining position in relation to frozen beef during the price negotiations and that, by agreeing to have the matter deferred for later consideration, he has lost much of the clout that he would have had in getting something done about it?
: I am surprised Deputy Bruton should say that, because the Coalition Government sat on this anomaly for years without doing anything about it. It was one of several anomalies that cost the farming industry millions of pounds.
: For the first time in our history, meat went out to Kent for boning in the present Minister's time.
: The Deputy should not be so peeved. I am sure he will recognise the significance of the breakthrough that we made as a Government.
: I realise the significance of the fact that there are several hundred people unemployed in my constituency because of the mess the Minister has been making of the meat industry.
: What did we do that was wrong? What were the people who lost their jobs doing? There were no boning-out jobs under Coalition coefficients, but that position is now at an end. I recommend that Deputy Clinton reconciles himself to the situation and recognises that it is better for the industry.
: We have not seen the results yet.