Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have three very short questions. About two years ago members of this committee attended the Green Week in Berlin and one of the stands that impressed me a great deal was about scientific advances that had been made in improving yield. Is Ireland at the cutting edge of that technology that ensures that we have the maximum yield from dairy herds, particularly in light of the ending of quotas? Is there any indication what impact the projected increase of 330,000 in the national dairy herd might have on Ireland's carbon footprint and on climate change?

There were extensive articles in today's newspapers about pricing, and one of the references that struck me was that there was no transparency in the deals struck with the processors and the supermarket multiples. Teagasc has suggested a price of 27.5 cent per litre but the articles refer to prices of 33 cent per litre, which farmers indicated resulted in only about 2 cent profit per litre. The price of non-branded liquid milk, which costs around 73 cent or 74 cent if one buys it in Superquinn or Tesco, was compared with branded milk, which costs €1.24 per litre. This is where the question was raised about lack of transparency. The articles said it was a closely guarded secret. In my opinion there is no transparency. What are the witnesses' views on this? Do they have any input into this? Surely there should be transparency.

One thing that keeps recurring is farmers saying they do not get a fair price for what they produce. I understand that only something like 8.4% of the total milk production in this country is liquid milk. Is there a fear that because of the expansion of dairy processing as a result of the ending of quotas and the emphasis on infant milk formula and non-liquid milk processing, we may find ourselves somewhat similar to Europe where UHT is used more than fresh milk? I think this would be a disaster and I do not think the consumer would take kindly to it. They are the sort of general issues and I am curious to know whether the witnesses have a view on them.