Big Phil is busy looking after EU interests, he said when he got the job he had no intention of looking after Irish farmer interests,
He's only interested now in making sure he great a big portfolio. We all know a lot of those Commissioner jobs are not big ticket items.
To be fair, this is more of an Irish related issue than Eu.[/QUOTE]
Beef is on its knees throughout Europe, it’s not just an Irish issue.
When dairy got a wobbler the Eu Commission jumped in with intervention and therefore created a market until things picked up again. It’s only lately that the intervention stores were emptied again.
Feck they even sorted everyone with a ski holiday!
If the will was there beef could be bailed out just as easily. Ireland/Irish standing alone with a €100mln chèque in our paws fighting between ourselves about how to divvy it out is sad. Just sad.
Creed, Teagasc etc are quite willing to throw the native beef industry under a bus to support the dairy expansion. To read headlines of ‘The situation is developing’ is nothing but spin. Deep navel gazing into the future direction of native beef is a distraction...there was no such navel gazing when dairy got into the same position, only ‘get the chèque book out and DO something fairly lively’, kinda attitude!!
Empty rhetoric, deep introspection and self flagellation is only clouding the real issue. Immediate action is needed on a Eu wide basis with strong leadership and representation (especially from Creed etc) to pressure the Commission into doing something fast.
Sadly, the demise of beef is seen as an opportunity for increased forestry to offset ghg emissions from dairy...not to mention nitrates.