I ask Deputy Danny Healy-Rae to be helpful.

I know but I am being interrupted. I support the beef farmers outside the gate. I have a question for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine who I am glad is here. It was clear under the beef exceptional aid measure, BEAM, that he introduced that if a farmer sold cattle in a mart and the cattle were killed within 30 days, he could claim €100. What is happening in Kerry is that cattle are being killed three days after going into the mart and the farmer is not getting the money; the buyer is getting the money. There is something wrong and the Minister needs to look at it. It is very serious.

I make no apologies about raising this issue. I asked last week for the beef task force to be set up immediately and for some concession to be made on the credit issues that farmers experience across the country. It has to be in the Minister's capacity to make an 80% payment on the scheme, subject to all the inspections and satellite searches that have been made. This is causing major issues for farmers' creditworthiness. He needs to take action immediately.

Today, the independent farmers of Ireland group has travelled from all over the country to peacefully protest outside Leinster House. This is only a short time after we had the peaceful protests outside factories in west Cork and throughout the country that went on for over a month. Does the Taoiseach fully realise the crisis we have in agriculture? Does he realise that the prices given to farmers for animals that they reared are at an all-time low? There are many questionable practices inside the gates of our factories. The farming public is on its knees and is pleading for transparency inside the factory gate. Will this Government clear up these questions one way or another by having a full independent investigation into practices inside the factories?

I stand in solidarity with the distressed farmers in my constituency, Laois-Offaly. I have met many farmers who are in serious financial distress. We need urgent action. The Government does not realise that agriculture is the backbone of our economy. The Government is slapping carbon taxes on it and is not giving the farmers fair play. It was an insult during the summer when many farmers could not access the BEAM because of the unfair conditions applying to that scheme. We need fair play for all and rural Ireland cannot be forgotten about. We will certainly make sure that it is not.

I thank my colleagues for raising this matter. I, along with the Government and the Deputies who have spoken on this, recognise the difficulties in the beef sector and agriculture generally. That is why the Government, in 2019 alone, put forward funding of an additional €120 million to support incomes in that challenged sector. The Teagasc 2020 results published earlier reflect that financial support has been available to that sector in the context of a difficult environment. It is not true to say, apart from those schemes, that the Government is not supporting farmers. I could list the exceptional aid measure, the environmental efficiency programme, the additional areas of natural constraint, ANC, payments, which have been increased to €250 million, the extension of disadvantaged areas and the beef data and genomics programme. A host of financial supports are available to that specific sector in the agricultural community.

Too much red tape.

The beef market task force is one of the tangible outcomes of the negotiations that were held. Like all Members, I would like that task force to meet. In the interim, as we try to bridge difficulties, which I will deal with briefly, there has been bilateral engagement between the chairman and all the constituent members.

It is not true to say that no progress has been made. We have had publication of the beef market price index, we have had tenders issued by agreement with all the parties bilaterally to commission studies that were agreed at the talks, and we have had a whole host of other arrangements and public consultations on unfair trading practices, with the idea of a regulator for the sector.

It has not changed the price.

The price is still on the floor.

There are specific issues regarding convening the task force, and Members are quite well aware of them. It has been alluded to that injunctions still remain, and they remain granted to a company that is not part of the talks in MII. What has compounded the difficulty in having those injunctions dealt with is that, and this is a matter which the Garda is aware of, senior management in that company have had death threats issued against them, and their partners and families have been intimidated in that local community. This is not simply an issue of the Government not wanting to resolve this issue. We are grappling with what are very difficult issues. We have seen in other cases what happens when senior executives in companies are threatened. You, Deputy Mattie McGrath, may dismiss the significance of death threats against people. The Government does not.

I do not. I resent that. I do no such thing.

You did.

Withdraw that, please. I will not accept that. My character is being impugned. I will not accept that. I ask the Minister to withdraw that.

Withdraw what?

That I accept that death threats are okay for people.

I will have a look at the blacks.

If the Deputy wishes to indicate that his shrug of the shoulders was indicating a negative in respect of death threats, I accept what he says. However, I, the Government, the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Garda take them seriously.