Sir, Much has been said about the dispute between the Irish Farmers' Association and the Irish Meat Association, yet two questions which require answering still haven't been answered. Is the IMA operating as a cartel? And if so, what is going to be done about it?
At present all IMA members are offering farmers the same price per lb for grade O cattle. If meat processors are, as they claim operating independently of each other, how can this occur? Until this problem is addressed, farmers will continue to feel cheated, and with just cause.
We are told that the law on picketing must be upheld, yet when it comes to upholding laws on competition, no one seems quite so bothered. Farmers have been tarred as people who are incapable of adhering to the law. Maybe it is time someone pointed the finger at the meat processors and questioned their commitment to the law.
The time has come for a serious investigation both at national level, via the Competition Authority, and at European level, via the European Commission, into what is obviously an unacceptable situation.
Simple mathematics shows that prices been paid by processors are in the long term going bankrupt of thousands of farmers. Independent research by Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, has shown it costs farmer/finishers 85p per lb to produce cattle for this time of year. When you put that against the price being offered by IMA members - 84p per lb - it's time to start wondering if the meat processors want their suppliers to go out of business.
This dispute will not end until the IMA is required by law to treat its suppliers equitably. Long live the law - so long as its fair! - Yours, etc.,
Luke "Ming" Flanagan, Knockroe, Castlerea, Co Roscommon.