Tóibín, Codd and OReilly launch the Aontú bill to ban below-cost selling in the beef industry
Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín, Cllr. Jim Codd and Cllr. Sarah O'Reilly have launched a bill to ban below-cost selling in the beef industry at the National Ploughing Championship.
Speaking at the launch of the bill, an Teachta Tóibín stated:
"The Beef Crisis continues to spiral out of control. The failure of recent talks hosted by Minister Creed show very clearly that the minister is not capable of bringing about a sustainable solution to this crisis.
"Farmers have returned to the pickets, supermarkets being picketed.
“The Minister's handling of the crisis to date has been weak and confused. The talks organised by the government were inadequate from the start. The government initially refused access to the talks to representatives of protesting farmers and never invited the supermarket multiples. Minister Creed has failed to get a grip of the situation."
“The beef market is dysfunctional. It is asymmetric. Factories have enormous buyer power while farmers have practically no supplier power. A small number of factories and supermarket multiples are making hundreds of millions of euro of profit on the backs of the poverty and debt of Beef Farmers. This is unfair and unsustainable and is pushing farmers off the land around the country. All this is happening in the teeth of Brexit and government plans to ratchet up imports in bargain-basement beef from Brazil”.
"We in Aontú want to ensure that there is a fair distribution of profit within the beef supply chain. We want to see an industry where all components are successful. We want to ensure that we have food security into the future. We also want to see a rural Ireland that’s alive and prospering.
"Here at the National Ploughing Championship, Aontú is meeting with those whose livelihoods directly depend on a prosperous rural Ireland. We in Aontú are proud to launch our bill to ban below-cost selling in the beef industry.
"This has been done in a number of other sectors, most noticeably the grocery market, and plans are afoot with regards alcohol. We are also writing to the Teagasc and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to request that steps be taken to introduce long term competitive balance into the beef industry. We are calling on the government to provide supports to farmers to develop Producer Groups which are the ultimate solution in this sector."
