Irish eyes and money at Cheltenham National Hunt Festival today will focus on an Irish horse with the unlikely name, Beef or Salmon. Most Irish people however will be unaware that they have already put their money on beef in the form of a heavy pre- festival bet last Friday evening.
The Irish taxpayer had no hand, act or part in laying €7 million down. This was done for them by the sporting Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh. Before he tidied up his desk to travel with his friend, Mr McCreevy to the festival, he announced a continuation of a subsidy to the beef industry to support the continuation of rendering at meat plants.
This was one of the most amazing U-turns made by any member of the Cabinet since the downturn in the economy.
As far back as last November, Mr Walsh signalled an end to the subsidy to help get rid of the waste from the meat industry, by March 1st.
The economy, he said, could not support the continuation of the subsidy which he said had cost €66 million in 2001, a crisis year in European agriculture because of foot-and- mouth and BSE problems. In 2002, the subsidy to the industry was somewhat lower. It dropped to €43 million from the taxpayer to fund the collection, processing, storing, shipping and ultimate destruction of factory waste.
Following the Budget, Mr Walsh repeated that there would be no more money for the renderers because the charge was a matter for the industry and if he continued to pay it, he could get in trouble with the EU which would see this as a national subsidy to the industry.
The announcement seemed to have no real impact on the industry right up until the last week in February when frantic press releases were issued by the meat plants, the farmers and the renderers to say the industry would close down if there was no support. The meat plants said they were not going to pay the additional charges being demanded by the renderers and would pass them back to the farmers. Naturally, the farmers said they were not going to pay.
The dispute then entered a phoney stage. The March 1st deadline passed but the meat plants remained open; the renderers continued to take the waste from the factories and the farmers were not charged the €16 per animal being demanded to replace the subsidy.
The theatre continued right up until Friday afternoon when a solemn group made up of all the players told the media that the industry would shut down from last Monday unless money was forthcoming from the Department of Agriculture and Food.
It almost appeared as if they knew there would be a deus ex machina to resolve the issue with our money, pre-Cheltenham. Right on cue, late on Friday evening, the Minister for Agriculture announced that he had changed his mind and would allow a further three months subsidy at a rate of €250 per tonne to continue.
This cleared the way for the meat plants to operate on Monday and for many participants, the Minister and Mr McCreevy - who had to sanction the additional payment - the meat plant owners and their horses, the farmers and their horses and their money to head for Cheltenham.Winner all right!
While wishing all of the racegoers a fine week, one has to wonder how long the beef industry, including the farmer-producers, can continue to live off the taxpayer. The last serious handout the taxpayer gave the industry was in 2001, when foot-and-mouth disease hit this island when it was brought in here in a smuggled consignment of sheep which ended up in a meat plant in the west.
The beef industry was already into its own crisis as the discovery in mainland Europe that they had higher-than-believed BSE in their herds had sparked yet another fall in consumption.
By early 2001, Ireland had tonnes of unsold beef with a falling number of customers as traditional markets closed us out because of consumer rejection. In that year the taxpayer provided €460 million to farmers and factories and we had the horrifying sight of perfectly good animals being slaughtered, the carcases stained with blue dye, to prevent a collapse of cattle prices and keep the factory doors open.
The Purchase for Destruction Scheme and the scheme which replaced it, the Special Purchase Scheme, removed and destroyed some 500,000 perfectly healthy cattle from the system in 2001, at the taxpayers' expense.
The export value of the sector fell by 8.7 per cent to €902 million but recovered somewhat last year to €1.18 billion. However, with farmers claiming weekly they are not getting enough for their cattle and the factories claiming they are not making any real profit, is taxpayers' money being wasted completely? At least when it is specifically aimed at education or health, it is possible to quantify a shortening of waiting lists for treatment or a lowering of class size.
The cynics suggest that we look at the betting returns from Cheltenham or Galway races to determine the true health of the beef industry because none of the players involved will admit that they are doing well out of it.There is one sure loser, however - the taxpayer.