Mr. Michael Kilcoyne:

In response to Deputy Ó Cuív's question, the position in respect of milk differs somewhat from many other products. We are of the view that the store or the person who sells the milk to the consumer is making a margin of approximately one third of the cost of that litre or 2 litres of milk. Consequently, the producer or farmer, that is, the man or woman who looks after the cows, is getting one third of the price the consumer pays. The processor is getting another third, approximately, and the store or multiple is getting the balance, namely, the other third. However, that store really has very little outlay. The milk arrives from the creamery, is wheeled in by the driver and then collected from the fridge by the consumer who pays for it on the way out. In many cases, that supermarket or store does not actually pay the processor for 90 days in some cases and certainly not for one or two months. Moreover, none of these stores and certainly not the multinationals will tell one what margin they are making. We do not know what profits they are making, and in many cases the consumer does not know from where the product is coming. There are loads of milk products on the shelves that claim to be made in Ireland or to be the product of Ireland and which carry the National Dairy Council label. However, there also is milk available that carries no label and it should be mandatory that the source of origin of that milk, be it from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland or the United Kingdom, be on that label. This is because, at present, we have no evidence that milk is not coming in from the United Kingdom mainland but it should be mandatory that such source of origin would be on the label. It also should be mandatory that these stores should disclose the profits they are making.