The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Beef plan meeting takes Dingle’s Mart by storm
MARGLANN an Daingin (Dingle Mart) played host to an often passionate and sometimes fiery Beef Plan Movement public meeting on Friday night, as a large crowd from west Kerry and further beyond called in to hear more about the 2018-2025 movement.
The meeting featured contributions by six speakers from around the country on behalf of the voluntary movement, including Dermot O’Brien, a suckler farmer and farming advisor from Firies. After the six key speakers had offered their thoughts, the microphone was handed on to members of the audience, during which time one of the movement’s PROs in Kerry, Tim O’Sullivan from Sneem, was among those to speak.
The meeting was attended by public representatives – Councillor Séamus Cosaí MacGearailt, and TD Danny Healy-Rae – and Tommy Griffin, who will run for a council seat on behalf of Fine Gael.
The wide-ranging plan “by farmers for farmers” is made up of 86 points and aims to secure a viable future for beef farming in Ireland. The movement says that many farmers are working at or below the cost of production and that the industry is facing into a bleak future without action.
Mr O’Sullivan has previously explained that getting factories to pay a minimum base price is high on the movement’s agenda, so farmers can receive a margin above the cost of production. It also strongly favours family farms and does not want to see a proliferation of feedlots in the country.
The movement also aims for the roll-out of producer groups, and purchasing groups to allow direct purchase from manufacturers and importers. A co-op-run abattoir is also on the agenda but is considered a more long-term venture.
“A lot of the farmers I deal with are small farmers,” Mr O’Brien said. “They’re in a lot of trouble.
“You need to stand up and fight,” he told the audience. “There’s an 86-point plan in place, for beef farmers by beef farmers. The 86 points deal with a range of obstacles and issues we deal with every day as beef farmers.
“I’m a suckler farmer, first and foremost, something I love doing... I’m asking all of you here tonight to come together.
Mr O’Brien said he feels meat processors have too much power in the industry, and added: “We want the four-movement rule gone. We want the 70-day retention gone. We can do that if we all stand together.”
“Rural Ireland is dying a death,” Abbeyfeale farmer David Murphy said during arguably the most passionate speech of the night. “You can pass through towns now, boarded up... it’s happening in my own town. Next thing the gates will be closed, the locks will be up on farmers.”
Also aired on the night of the meeting were demands that beef farmers receive a fair share of offal or ‘fifth quarter’ sales, which were worth €230million in exports in 2017, or some €135 per animal.
There was also fury over an answer by Minister Michael Creed to a call by Michael Healy-Rae TD to remove the controversial ‘four-movement rule’ – a limit on the number of movements of cattle prior to slaughter, and a condition of the Quality Payment System (QPS) bonus payment.
Minister Creed said the QPS was introduced in 2009 “by agreement between Meat Industry Ireland (MII) and the Irish Farmers Association (IFA),
“My understanding is that the conditions attached to qualification for this bonus payment include a limit on the number of movements of cattle in their lifetime prior to slaughter. This is a purely private arrangement between both parties, and my Department has no role in its design or implementation.”
Farmers were incensed at the thought of such a “purely private arrangement”. The IFA has, however, described the Minister’s comments as “highly misleading” and “incorrect”, saying the introduction of the QPS was a public matter and included Dáil debate.
On the night, the attendance heard that the movement has between 17,000 and 18,000 members, almost halfway to its minimum aim of securing 40,000 members.
Those involved say that uniting farmers in such a movement boosts beef farmers’ chances of meeting their aims.
“On our own, we have no negotiating power with factories or retailers,” Mr O’Sullivan said of beef farmers. “But if 40,000 of us are together, then we certainly would have a very strong voice.”