Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The point is the 11% of what is charged still remains with the store.

I agree it is dangerous not to have been fully briefed on the full picture. After three hours of deliberations today, the committee is trying to bring itself up to speed on this matter. I hope the representatives of all the organisations present will accept that. As they can see, this has been done in a collegiate and cross-party fashion to extract the best out of this process. Frankly, it would not be worth our while if it was turned into a political football.

Deputy Ó Cuív made an interesting observation about a Northern Ireland dairy company. The committee might recommend that our colleagues in the agriculture committee in the Northern Ireland Assembly examine this matter with regard to liquid milk. This is a matter that brings in the issues such as the decimation of the family farm structure, the future of rural communities, animal welfare, etc. We should notify the Assembly’s committee of our concerns about this development because it is really a divide-and-conquer technique.

When I asked earlier for a short answer as to whether liquid milk supplies were stable or unstable, the unanimous response was they are unstable. With abolition of quotas and the seasonal manner in which the supply chain is planned, the committee has highlighted this issue that is coming down the tracks. For those who want to continue to make profits out of fresh milk, they should take notice. They have been warned of the implications of not retuning a fair price to the primary producer and, to be fair, the processors.

Today, we had hearings for the past three hours from those involved in the sector. It is interesting we have not mentioned subsidy once, except about a return to a subsidy for producers in New Zealand to make it attractive to supply milk to local shelves. We do not want to go down that route. The committee spends much time talking about schemes and grants but in this case we are talking about a return from the commodity to the producer and processor. This is a commodity that needs a fair market return. It does not need support from the taxpayer, other than that a reasonable price is returned through the supply chain.

It was suggested earlier that the committee would invite the relevant statutory agencies in this sector to present to it which we will do. On foot of that, we will be writing up our report which will be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and put into the public domain.

I thank the delegations for attending and Members for their constructive contributions and lines of questioning.