Page 108 of the programme for Government states that the development of the agriculture and food sector is a fundamental priority and that the priority for agriculture is rewarding farmers for high quality produce. The beef sector is currently in deep crisis and, of course, the factors that have added to this are factory prices, the current Brexit scenario and currency fluctuations, in addition to the proposed reduction in the CAP budget. Beef farmers the length and breadth of this State are experiencing serious financial losses and the 5 cent per kilo drop for beef last week has impacted further on an already bad situation. In my constituency, there are farmers in Laois and Offaly struggling to pay household bills and in great hardship. What actions and interventions, apart from the newly announced loan scheme for businesses and farmers, will be put in place to assist our farming families, particularly in the beef sector, who are experiencing great financial hardship at this time?

I thank the Deputy for her question and particularly for her focus on the beef sector. As she is aware, we place significant emphasis, in the context of a functioning market, on having adequate competition, particularly in the area of live exports. The Deputy may have seen in one of the agri-publications today news of significant interest in cattle for live export to Libya, which is an ongoing issue in terms of competition. With regard to the resources the State can put into the industry, the Deputy will be aware that in the most recent budget we introduced a new initiative in the beef environmental efficiency programme and we increased payments in the areas of natural constraint scheme.

We cannot, nor should we, interfere in the market relationship in terms of being able to influence prices at factory level. However, what we are doing is trying to facilitate the organisation of farmers as a collective so that, instead of negotiating on a basis of one farmer-supplier dealing with the factory, it would be done through producer organisations so they can have greater clout. We have seen a manifestation of that in the most recent development between Kepak and Glanbia in terms of producing to the market and being able to get a premium price for that. A variation of that theme is the producer organisations, which is another area where we are directing support to the beef sector.