I wish to raise the plight of beef and suckler farmers countrywide. This vital industry is at a critical crossroads because farmers are not covering their costs. This cannot continue. There are two contributing factors. First, factories have a monopoly and are not paying farmers properly or fairly for the high standard of animals being produced and, second, not enough live exports are being sourced by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or An Bord Bia, which would create competition for the factories and assist farmers in getting fair prices. Farmers throughout the country, including in Kerry, are attending beef plan meetings where they are expressing outrage at the inaction of this Government. They feel they are being neglected.

Last week in this Chamber I highlighted the case of a Libyan buyer who was waiting more than three months for a visa so that he could come here to purchase more than 4,000 bulls worth €5 million. I welcome that, following my intervention, he received his visa, but it is too late because he has gone to Spain to do his business there. I hope he will return to Ireland another time.

The factories are applying ridiculous rules and regulations to trip up farmers. In the case of the four movement rule, if it is shown that an animal has moved more than four times, the factory will reduce the price by €40 to €80, even though the quality of the beef is the same.

They will still kill it and sell it, and it is the same steak on the plate for the consumer.

On the 30-month rule, there is no difference whatsoever between an animal at 29 months or 31 months. If it goes over the age of 30 months, the price of the animal is again reduced by between €40 and €80. If the animal goes over the age of 36 months, the price of the animal is reduced by €200, while the price of bulls that go over the age of 34 months is cut by €350. The factories have databases. They know when every animal was born, and when it reaches the age of 24 months, they will hold it up for a few weeks before selling it at the lower price. The 70-day retention also hurts the trade. We do not have enough lairages in Cherbourg to take the dairy-bred calves out of the country. How is it that animals sell for €200 a head more in the North of Ireland? There is only a boggy ditch between us in places in the North and South of Ireland.

The fifth quarter is the most serious aspect of what the factories are doing to farmers. It is worth more than €270 to the factory but farmers do not get one red cent of it. The factories sell offal, tendons, tongues, hides, hooves and all those parts of the animals but they do not give one cent to the farmer. It is stealing and robbery from farmers who work from dark to dark to put good animals into the factories.

As we are all aware, there are approximately 70,000 beef farmers in Ireland. Beef farming and the beef industry are essential parts of the agricultural and rural economy, extending well beyond the farm to marts, processors and other aspects of the meat industry. On what the Government is doing to support farmers, the Deputy will be aware that we have put in place a successful beef data and genomics programme, providing funding to farmers to improve the quality of their stock. In the past couple of weeks, the new beef environmental efficiency pilot, BEEP, has come into effect, providing approximately €20 million to beef farmers. Furthermore, the beef forum has been established, comprising farmers, producers and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and his officials. It is working on many of those detailed issues which the Deputy raised, ranging from lairages in Cherbourg to the rules and regulations.

The overriding concern for everyone working in the beef industry is what will happen in the next couple of weeks in respect of Brexit. I want beef farmers and the beef industry to know that we have their backs in that regard. We are working to secure a deal that provides a transition period in order that there will be no changes to the rules of trade at least until the end of 2020, which will help to restore confidence to the industry and allow prices to rise again. In case there is no deal, we are working closely with the European Commission to put in place financial supports that will be necessary to bail out the industry to defend incomes and jobs, which is our priority at the moment.

I asked the Taoiseach what he would do about the factories, the unfairness, and the rules and regulations that are hurting farmers. I have asked him many times in the Chamber but it looks as though he just does not get it or understand what is happening. The farming community is at a crossroads, as are all those who supply them or depend on them because when farmers go bad, the rest of the country goes bad. It is time for the farming community to come to the gate of Leinster House and tell the Taoiseach what is going on because he does not get it. We could speak in the Chamber day after day, night after night but still the Taoiseach will not listen. The farmers are on their knees and will not take it for much longer. I call on them, the Irish Farmers Association, the Beef Plan Movement and all the other farming organisations to come to Kildare Street and let the Government know once and for all what it is not doing for farmers. They are on their knees and cannot take it for much longer. The whole industry will close.

The Taoiseach referred to Brexit but there are so many ifs and buts. While we would dearly love the United Kingdom to stay in the Common Market, it is both coming and going and it is either this or that. It should make up its mind to come or go. Nevertheless, the farmers will still be here and the Taoiseach is doing nothing about the factories for them. He could, but he will not because he is tied to them.

The Deputy knows as well as I do that the factories are a private industry, that we do not control the beef factories and that the Government does not control the price of any commodity, whether it is a foodstuff, a material, oil or gas. The prices are determined on the markets, taking into account supply and demand. The Deputy should not tell me I do not get it while he pretends he does not get it. He knows full well that the Government does not set the price of commodities or control the beef factories. He is being disrespectful and misleading to beef farmers by pretending that somehow that is not the case. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, has established a beef forum on a collaborative basis, involving producers, the factories, representatives of the farmers, his Department and his officials, and it is working through all of these issues.