Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses to the committee. The witness said there should be a voluntary code of practice and she would prefer to go down the European road. I understand the Musgrave Group is part of a European organisation that deals directly with various countries and complies with the United Kingdom code of practice. The United Kingdom put a new independent adjudicator in place in January and the Musgrave Group complies with all its regulations. Why then would the group consider going down a different road as it complies with the United Kingdom code on a different basis from a European code? There is no reason an organisation should not be able to comply with our own code of practice. The code in the United Kingdom is very straightforward where there would be an independent arbitrator. Would the witnesses have any problem in dealing with an independent arbitrator who may come in to investigate any potential breaches of code of practice? I am not suggesting there are any such breaches but if there were and if fines were imposed, would there be a problem with that as opposed to going down a voluntary road which, as the witness appears to suggest, might be a better road?

On the issue of actual costings, the Musgrave Group and two other retailers dominate the market, effectively controlling 80% of the retail business in Ireland. At the same time we in Ireland pay a high cost for groceries, 18% higher than the EU average. Mr. Allen has suggested that consumers will drive down prices. Is it really the consumer who drives down prices or is it the fact that three main players dominate the market and to a certain extent, as Senator Susan O'Keeffe mentioned, is it a closed shop between the main competitors in the market? Ms Clancy mentioned earlier that costs from an agricultural point of view are continually increasing. She also mentioned that the Musgrave Group deals directly with Kepak from a beef point of view but there are more products involved than beef, there are vegetables. There are a lot of costs involved in producing those as the costs are increasing time and again. If costs are increasing and if, as the witnesses say, the consumer is driving down prices on one side, we need to get a balance. How can we arrive at a balance in the future?