The Irish beef processing industry has repeated its call to the Government to provide more financial assistance to meat plants to avoid the mass slaughter of Irish animals under the EU destruction scheme.
The call came following rejection by the EU Beef Commission of a tender from the plants to place nearly 2,000 tonnes of beef into EU intervention at prices close to 95p per lb.
Commenting on the rejection, Mr John Smith of the Irish Meat Association, which represents the factories, said the EU wanted to push the Irish industry towards the destruction scheme.
"This is because almost all of the costs of the destruction scheme have to be met by national governments and the EU would have to pay for a properly run intervention scheme."
Asked why factories seemed to be so reluctant to operate the slaughter for destruction scheme, Mr Smith said the industry saw no long-term future in the destruction of Irish animals.
"We want to test and sell beef into a commercial market and by doing so protect the fabric of the industry, the jobs in it and we want to save the Irish taxpayer millions of pounds," he said.
This could be achieved if the Government gave more financial assistance to the testing operation, put pressure on the EU to increase export refunds to help sell outside the EU and if it mounted a diplomatic drive to reopen the markets, he said.
However, this analysis was rejected by IFA president Mr Tom Parlon, who said that this week more than 20,000 cattle had been killed for commercial markets and only 4,000 for destruction. He called on the meat industry to begin a serious marketing effort for Irish beef which would minimise farmer use of the destruction scheme.
He reminded the factories they had been paying farmers as little as 77p per lb before the scheme introduced a 90p per lb basic minimum price. "With testing and marketing the Irish meat industry has the choice in its own hands as to the number of cattle that will ultimately end up in the destruction scheme," he said.
Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association president Mr Pat O'Rourke said he was shocked at the EU decision not to accept the intervention tender. It seemed the Commission was totally indifferent to the huge losses being incurred by the beef sector at all levels.
The scheme could in a very short time "destruct the Irish beef sector itself", he said. The loss of jobs already announced was a clear indicator of the problem.