Mr. Patrick Kent:

On the question about Commissioner Hogan, the transparency of the food chain and where the money is going, I think labels can be applied to products that highlight the fact the farmer gets so little. There is probably an opportunity there.

The sugar tax has been kicked down the road to 2018. That should be addressed immediately and the funding generated by the tax on carbonated beverages should be used to educate kids in school, on milk schemes in schools, or to educate kids to cook. Many kids now only know how to phone up and order a pizza or other takeaway. Increasingly, kids going to school in the morning get breakfast rolls with carbonated beverages in petrol stations. As a result they become obese and unhealthy very quickly. That transfers to the HSE budget as they develop massive health problems in later life such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other issues. That has to be addressed. There might be a lack of courage to do that because people think these are poor people but everybody drinks these carbonated beverages and everybody suffers as a result. That goes across the spectrum of the health care industry. There are vested interests involved and huge lobby groups.

Deputy Pringle asked the IFA how to increase the price for farmers. We have to increase demand. We are producing grass-fed beef and lamb, the healthiest meats in the world. If the funding were put into advertising those to get them into the high price markets, we would have a massive future. That is not being done. An Bord Bia is asleep. Its members go on junkets abroad to Taiwan and places like that. We have got to get into our main markets in the UK. We have to advertise the food, get the consumers to appreciate and be proud of it.

When a child is brought down the street in a pushchair, she is given a coloured chemical cocktail and the next time she is given milk at home she throws it away. Some recent research shows this cocktail is more addictive than cocaine. The sugar tax has to be brought in. People have to be healthy. They have to appreciate the food we produce here and farmers have to be appreciated for producing it. The very good environment we have must be appreciated also and it has to be understood that this is the future. Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine, said, "Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food." We have to adopt that sort of approach.

On the issue of diesel, I have seen some misleading stuff in the press recently saying that there is a diesel subsidy for farmers. There is no such thing. That is misinformation given out by a particular lobby group based in this city. What has been said is not true. Farmers do not get a diesel subsidy. They get a lower tax rate on it. There is also misinformation given out that farmers do not pay carbon tax on the diesel for their tractors. Farmers pay a higher proportion of their diesel bill in carbon tax than any other sector. The price per litre is higher. Green diesel costs over 5.5 cent a litre - that is more than white diesel - in carbon tax. If the carbon tax continues to be taken it has to be ring-fenced and put back into rural Ireland to finance green energy schemes, that will feed into the national grid on a small scale. There is only very large-scale funding for big projects and vulture funds come in from abroad and launder money through them. We have to act small and basic. This money is being taken out of farmers’ pockets. There are many opportunities in rural Ireland for wind, solar, water and methane projects. Due to the fact that so much carbon tax is levied on farmers, they do not have money left to invest in anything else. They do not even have an income.

I will hand over to Mr. Punch to deal with technical issues.