A DÁIL bill aimed at protecting beef farmers across Cork from exploitation with a ban on below cost selling in the beef industry was narrowly defeated.
Aontú had introduced the ‘Equitable Beef Pricing Bill’ with the aim to farmers get a fair price for their beef by banning below cost selling. It was one of the final votes in the Dáil before its dissolution ahead of the general election but it was rejected, 69 votes to 57.
Aontú’s Cork North West election candidate Becky Kealy called the vote outcome ‘more than disappointing’.
‘It is very disappointing that the three parties in government used, what was for many of their TDs their last vote in the Dáil, to block this legislation. It’s a sad day for rural Ireland.
‘If ever we needed proof that is government of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Greens simply don’t prioritise rural Ireland, this is it,’ Ms Kealy said.
‘The beef sector is never far from crisis. Factories have enormous buyer power while farmers have practically no supplier power. This is so unfair.’
Ms Kealy said the beef market as it stands in unsustainable and is pushing farmers off the land around Cork.
‘All this is happening in the context of the EU Mercosur Trade Deal which will represent the final nail on the coffin of the Irish beef farmer. The deal makes no environmental sense and will see Irish beef farmers shafted by the EU in favour of substandard South American beef, where deforestation, forest fires and overgrazing are all part of the agricultural method, not to mention the huge carbon cost of importing that beef to Europe.’
