The European Commission will today come to the rescue of Irish beef producers facing catastrophic price cuts in the home market by opening up intervention.
Rule changes to the intervention system will be proposed by the Commission to the EU's Beef Management Committee, which will allow categories of beef currently excluded from intervention to be taken in, forcing up prices paid to producers.
A Commission spokesman said that "04" category carcases - a description of their configuration and fat content - will now be allowed into intervention and the weight ceiling will be lifted from 340 to 360 kg. The Commission will also increase the processing subsidy paid to factories from 10 ecu per head to 14 ecu (£11).
Irish beef prices are currently below EU "safety net" levels and if they stayed at such levels for two weeks, emergency intervention would automatically apply to the more restricted categories of animals and at lower rates of subsidy to factories.
Beef prices in Ireland have fallen alarmingly because of the collapse of the Russian market, the State's second-largest outlet, and are now below EU "safety net" levels.