Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Triona McCormack for her presentation and Professor Evans for his contribution. I want to make one or two points about young farmers and attracting young people into the industry. The percentage of the consumers' take home pay that is spent on food has been consistently decreasing. As a modern society, that is an issue we must address. The percentage primary producers are getting of what is being charged by the major retailers is also rapidly decreasing. Our major retailers seem to have only one focus and that is to sell food as cheaply as possible. Our farmers are producing a top class product under stringent standards. At some stage those retailers will break the camel's back. They cannot continue in that direction. I am not criticising the work the witnesses are doing and it is not their remit to sort out the major retailers but there is a slide in that direction. We need only compare milk prices in the 1980s with those of today, as well as the percentage primary producers are getting and their margins. Dairy farmers have probably trebled or quadrupled the size of their operations but that has not done much for the bottom line. If we are to attract people into the industry, those factors must be addressed.

The research being done in UCD has a huge part to play in the future. I have been lucky enough to have had contact with Professor Kevin O'Connor on the Lisheen project and have seen his knowledge and depth of research there. Great credit is due to him and others for getting it going. They picked a grand site for it within five or six miles of my home base.