With less than a week to go before the 1 January deadline for having a bonus payment in place for heifers and steers, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney remains confident that a deal can be done.

“There were a number of things that we said we wanted to have in place for the New Year and I think we will deliver on those,” Minister Coveney said during an exclusive interview with the Irish Farmers Journal.

“My job is to ensure that the commitments that were given in the beef forum are delivered. I’ve made it very clear to the processing sector that my role, in terms of chairing the beef forum, is (to ensure) that commitments which are made... are followed through on and I will be strong on that,” he added.

At the last beef forum, it was agreed that a new Quality Assurance bonus would be paid for steers and heifers from all quality assured farms and that it would be in place by 1 January. The factories have said they are working towards a "cost neutral" agreement but there is no deal in place yet.

Minister Coveney also flatly rejected criticisms that the beef forum has achieved little since in its inception.

“The easy thing for me to do as the Minister was to pass on this... it was a risk, I wanted to change the structures of the sector and that’s why we are having these engagements. Everyone is still very much engaged with the beef forum,” he concluded.

The full interview with Minister Coveney’s review of 2014 will be in next week’s edition of the Irish Farmers Journal which will be in the shops on Wednesday, 31 December. There will be more from the interview with Minister Coveney on www.farmersjournal.ie on Saturday.