PROPOSALS to reform the beef sector which are to be put to the EU Commission by the EU Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, later today were described last night as a "redundancy package" by the Irish Farmers' Association.
Details of the package were leaked at the weekend and are expected to include the slaughter of one million calves under 10 days old, the slaughter of one million weanling calves and a cut of 7 per cent in cereal supports which will be diverted to the beef sector.
Commenting on the package, Mr John Donnelly, the IFA president, said what is going to be proposed is nothing more than a litany of production cuts amounting to a redundancy package without compensation for a large number of Irish livestock producers.
He called on the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, to firmly reject what he termed "the Fischler beef production cuts" and immediately come forward with his own set of proposals aimed at protecting Ireland's £1.7 billion beef and livestock sector.
Beef farmers, he said, realise and accept that the EU Commission must take firm action to rebalance the European beef market which has been totally disrupted by the UK BSE crisis.
"However, farmers did not create this crisis and they must not be asked to carry all the costs. Adequate compensation must be made available by the Commission to offset the severe losses at individual farm level, otherwise thousands of farmers will be financially ruined," he said.
Mr Donnelly said the leaked Fischler proposals were fundamentally flawed in that there was no move to put a floor under beef prices and protect cattle farmers' incomes.
"In addition, there are no hard facts on increasing the CAP budget to pay additional compensation for the price and production cuts facing producer," he said.
"Proposals to put a floor price under calves with a slaughter scheme must be matched with a floor price for beef cattle. IFA is demanding fixed price intervention in order to prevent any further reductions in cattle prices and protect farmers incomes," he said.
Mr Donnelly said any scheme to buy up calves or weanlings must be matched with a guaranteed intervention price for beef at the other end.
He added that the price of a calf or weanling slaughter scheme must be related to market reality and there must be fixed price intervention. A proposal to cut the Irish Special Beef Premium Quota by 5 per cent would reduce the National Beef Quota by 284,000 head, which would cost the economy £25 million annually.