THE Competition Authority may be asked by the Government to enlarge its investigation into the prices farmers receive for cattle to encompass the price consumers are paying for beef.
For despite a 20 year low in cattle prices, the price being paid for prime cuts of beef in butchers' shops and supermarkets has not kept pace with falling producer prices.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, has asked the Competition Authority to examine allegations that meat factories are "fixing" the prices paid to farmers for beef. This inquiry may now be widened to include the prices paid by consumers.
However, the Fianna Fail agriculture spokesman, Mr Joe Walsh, accused the Minister of a sharp "Uturn" after 18 months of dithering during which he let the live cattle trade disappear and meat factories cream it off because of the lack of competition".
The Progressive Democrat agriculture spokesman, Senator John Dardis, said yesterday that the authority's investigation should give a welcome degree of independent assessment of the validity of allegations about a lack of competition among meal factories. He also called on Mr Yates to ensure the findings were made public in advance of the general election.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Frank Allen, welcomed the move but said the Minister should have acted months ago.
The Irish Cattle Traders' and Stockowners' Association claimed Mr Yates's slowness in standing up to meat factories meant they had continued to impose unfair contract terms on beef producers.
The Irish Meat Association which represents processors, has denied the allegations of price fixing.
Since the beginning of the year, the prices being paid to farmers for their cattle have fallen by at least £100 for bullocks and by at least £80 for heifers. However this week heifer prices were 4p a lb higher than bullock prices, with factories paying 82p a lb for heifers and only 78p for bullocks.
Irish people consume heifer meat and while there has been a 15 per cent fall in the price of items such as mince and rib meat and shin beef, prime cut prices do not reflect falling beef prices.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said last night that Irish consumer prices are being monitored and it appeared that the fall in prices being paid to farmers is not being passed on.
"The butchers tell us there have been reductions in many of the cuts and some reductions in prime cuts but perhaps the time has come to have this whole area investigated too," he said.
A leading Dublin butcher said last night that the authority investigation into the export market was not relevant to the prices Irish consumers pay for beef at home.
"The price of the butcher's heifer has not dropped to the same degree as the price of bullocks for the export market and the two trades cannot be compared," he said.
He said the family butcher tended either to rear animals himself or buy them from directly from farms at premium prices which are not currently being achieved at marts or in factories.
"We sell a premium product and we pay premium prices and it is also untrue to suggest that prices have not come down in recent times," said the butcher, who asked not to be named.
When it was put to him that many butchers and supermarkets are supplied by meat factories who are also in the export business, he said that was a matter for them.
"I think you can leave us out of this one. We are a different trade altogether, a trade that gets no State or EU support at all," he said.
Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, which is mounting a major drive on the Egyptian beef market today, has always stressed the importance of a strong domestic market.