Danny Healy-Rae demands beef regulator, removal of movement rules
Danny Healy-Rae spoke about pressures on small rural beef farmers and urged the government to establish a beef regulator and scrap the four-movement and 30-month rules. He argued factories use movement data to control prices and called for new market access, including live exports.
Call for beef regulator and rule changes
Danny Healy-Rae called for a beef regulator to ensure farmers would be properly paid and urged the minister to remove the four-movement rule and the 30-month rule. He said the rules give factories advance knowledge of supply and allow processors to depress farmgate prices.
Representation of small rural farmers
He spoke on behalf of small farmers around County Kerry, naming local areas and describing producers who supply top-quality calves to finishers and fatteners. He said these farmers work long hours calving cows and form the backbone of rural Ireland.
Economic scale and industry pressures
He cited around 70,000 beef farmers and more than 10,000 people in processing and said the sector is worth over 2.5 billion to the economy. He warned that factories repeatedly reduce prices even as input costs rise.
Rising input costs and falling returns
He highlighted sharp increases in fertiliser, feedstuff and diesel costs while prices paid to farmers have fallen in recent days. He argued farmers are under continuous pressure from factories when processors decide to reduce prices.
Market threats and export proposals
He warned of international competition from Mercosur, New Zealand and Australia and said the country currently supplies the greater part of its beef production to the UK. He appealed to open new markets for live cattle exports, regardless of opposition from the Greens, and urged greater protection for producers and consumers.
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Thank you, Les, and I'm glad to get the opportunity to talk and this is very important. Deputy, are you sharing the 10 minutes? Are you speaking? Yeah, okay. We're five minutes each, myself and Myrtlea. I'm glad to get the opportunity to speak on the people that I'm representing here, small farmers, small rural farmers, right around the county of Kerry, and especially from Paul Gorham Bridge, through Kilgarven, Kinmear and Schneem, to Villinsha, and to Villinsha Island, these are basically soccer farmers supplying top quality calves to the finishers and fatteners around the country. The best calves leave Kinmear, Cal Saivine, the Mertzen Castle Island, and Lestol and Trili for the rest of the country for the bee finishers. And these soccer farmers play a key role and they work very hard and produce top quality from staying up all night, calving cows, because it's a very honest job and the breeding of the animals don't find out. But these 70,000 bee farmers are continuously being put under pressure by the factories when they decide to reduce the prices. And they're the backbone of rural Ireland, and indeed olive oil and these farmers. There's 10,000 or more involved in the industry in processing, and it's worth over 2.5 billion to the economy. And, you see, the factories are definitely regarding the beef producers and the beef finishers. You have the four-movement rule and the totemount rule. And I have said to the, I have told the last Taoiseach, look, when the animal is hanging up inside in the factory there, who's going to say that animal was totemount, or that he had moved through farms for five or seven times. It's absolutely ridiculous. But I know what it is about, though. It's to give the factories the knowledge, because they're able to get that data, when the animals are going to come to them. And they're going to have animals to match them out of their own feedlots and bring down the price that the farmers should get. And this is what they're doing, controlling the prices. I'm asking you, Minister, and I appreciate when you say you're a farmer soon, but I'm another farmer soon here, and I'm a farmer myself, and I have been farming all my life, and I understand what people have to go through day and night. And when we overcome everything else, we still have to continue with the weather, like we're doing at the present time. Fertilizer, feedstuff, and diesel costs have gone through the roof. But you won't see prices matching that. In fact, prices have gone down in recent days, and I have to remind you of that. And, you see, we're calling for a beef regulator to ensure that farmers would be properly paid. And this regulator could also, you know, find out what's going on with the retailers, because the retailers are saying that they never look for this four-movement rule, which is of no benefit to them, neither is the 30-month rule. I'm asking you, Minister, to get rid of those two rules. I'm appealing to you. And the factories have no right. They have no divine right. They've got no authority from nobody to put it out. And I'm asking your government to get rid of those two rules now. Farmers have gone through too much. And we need to give greater care and protection to the producers and, indeed, the consumers to ensure that our emerging international trading environment continues on the horizon. We have farmers under threat from Mercosur and from New Zealand and from Australia. The English we hear now are doing a deal with the Australians. And we're supplying the greater part of our beef production to the UK at the present time. If we're going to lose that, farmers are going to be put under more pressure by the factories. And I'm appealing to you, as well, to ensure that we open up new markets for live cattle exports out of the country, regardless of what the Greens are saying. And, you see, the farmers are being victimised and treated like eco-criminals. The tarnished is supporting a vegan diet. Everything is down on the farmers. And I'm appealing to you now to make a stand and show where he is. Are he standing with the farmers, the beef farmers, the small farmers in New Orleans? Are he not? Are we getting used to МУЗЫКА If I give up, they're not God. That's all. Are he's statistics? Are there, ETA, is this big news? Yes. Yes.
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