An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-26
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Paraic Brady (FG), Agricultural Panel

I would also like to be associated with the comments regarding Senator Seán Kyne, now Deputy Kyne. I first of all congratulate him and his wider team but also the people of Galway for something very special. Seán Kyne is very likeable but he is also trustworthy. That is the message we got on the doors, when we canvassed in Galway, that Seán Kyne is a likeable fellow and is trustworthy. We see people giving out on social media that he did not get the highest vote and so on. Democracy is at play here and it is strong in this country. It is not first past the post. People have to understand that. There are some woeful comments that he did not get the highest vote but at the end of the day, he finished first at the end of the race, which is what democracy is all about. Moving on from that, I congratulate Daniel Ennis and his family. It is lovely to get elected and is a great achievement.
I raise an issue regarding beef prices.
There was a huge increase in beef prices last year for farmers but unfortunately this year there has been a decrease and a number of farmers are losing between €4 to €5.50 a head on prices last year for the same weight of animal killed in factories. We are talking about food security. It has to be priority number one but we are seeing massive losses on farms. Despite this, the retailers are paying €13.99 to €25.99 for the same beef the farmers are getting €6.30 or €6.50 for. There is a huge price gap here for the factories and there is huge price-gouging going on whether we like it or not. The farmer is keeping those cattle for 500 to 600 days on average in most cases. The factories have them for six weeks and the retailer has them before he sells them for maybe 21 days. If we are talking about food security we have to get serious about this. I call on MII to give a statement on why the price of beef is falling at the rate it is at this time of the year.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-26