PROPOSALS from the Minister for Agriculture to the EU to ease the plight of Irish beef producers were yesterday rejected by the Commission.
Although the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Franz Fischler, did not back Mr Yates's request to reactivate a special scheme of aids to private storage, he did get approval from the union's Beef Management Committee for a take-up of the full Irish application for traditional intervention of 4,664 tonnes.
The measure should help strengthen beef prices for the winter fatteners who are said to be facing losses of up to £120 per animal. With the committee issuing licences for 21,000 tonnes, only a quarter to a half of the applications for intervention licences from other member-states were granted.
A spokesman said the Commissioner believed the Aids to Private Storage (APS) scheme would have taken until the end of May to put in place, and would have been of no use to the Irish winter fatteners.
