Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo the welcome to Ms Clancy. She referred to the foundation of the Musgrave Group in Cork. I discovered some years ago that Thomas and Stuart Musgrave came from my home town of Drumshanbo, Country Leitrim, before migrating to Cork to set up Musgrave Brothers. I was not aware of the significance of that until I took my first job with Lairds, which produced Bo-Peep jams and marmalades. The Musgrave Group was one of its main customers and, as a result, the entire population of Munster grew up on these jams and marmalades. I have a particular interest in the ongoing development of Musgrave Group and I compliment her and her company on the manner in which it has risen to the challenge of multinational operators who dominate the market. The company has held its market share and will increase it. It is probably only right and proper that a Centra outlet operates successfully in my home town as a continuation of the Musgrave connection.

As I come from a Border county, I am interested in the company's view of the narrowing of the gap in food prices between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Over the past two years, despite campaigns by Centra, which is prominent in seeking support for local businesses and local jobs, the fear has increased that because the price gap is narrowing between both, it is becoming more attractive for southern customers to travel north. Is the Musgrave Group aware of this? Does it keep a vigilant eye on price changes in Northern Ireland? I appreciate currency differences must be taken into account as well as economies of scale, which sometimes are not appreciated here because Northern Ireland is part of the larger UK market in terms of how it is supplied. The VAT rate in the North also increased, which also helped considerably. The long queues of cars travelling north are long gone and I hope that will continue but I am anxious to establish whether the group is aware of a creeping narrowing of the price gap and that could quickly change.

Will Ms Clancy address the perception that a cartel operates among all suppliers in Ireland? Despite the detailed presentation she has given about how the Musgrave Group prices and how competitive it is, we all know the retail grocery market is probably the most competitive market in Ireland and Musgrave Group is always looking over its shoulder. Whenever consumer commentators in the national media receive consumer opinion, there is a perception that special offers and promotions mask the underlying price structures and because all the major retailers are watching each other, they do not stray far from each other on price, yet Aldi and Lidl are eating into their market share because they do not seem to operate under those rules. It is a perception and I do not suggest it is the reality but it needs to be clarified.

With regard to the company's support for local produce, it stocks jams, marmalades and other specialised foods from small suppliers at local level but there is a problem with these cottage industries in that they produce good food but they do not always market themselves terribly well. Has the company a policy in place nationally to encourage these cottage industries, which have a proven success rate, to develop their products or is the policy operated on a store by store basis?

The company agrees with the code of practice in principle but Ms Clancy then stated additional regulation and red tape could make it more difficult and consumers could be impacted on by the additional costs of compliance. Will she elaborate on that? How will the code of practice work?

I refer to labelling. She stated the group continues to invest heavily and work closely with its suppliers and its traceability systems stand up to rigorous scrutiny. Did the company stock any of the meat products in which horse DNA was found? If the company has invested heavily and works closely with its suppliers, how did this happen? I acknowledge that Ms Clancy said the group's dealings with suppliers are at the secondary stage of the supply chain and that, for example, it does not purchase beef directly from farmers but buys it from Kepak. Do company representatives go into these factories? I am trying to establish how this happened. With such strict regulation in the food industry, given how important it is to our national and international image, I would have expected major purchasers such as the Musgrave Group to be keen to ensure the integrity of traceability is maintained. Has Ms Clancy an insight into how this happened? Can we be assured it will not happen again?