Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Goggins for her presentation. I am sure the primary producer will survive and the focus is that consumers will not be hurt by this legislation.

In the past 15 years to 20 years, I understand the percentage of the disposable income of consumers spent on food has dropped very significantly. Has Ms Goggins the figures to support that? We all want to protect consumers but how long can the primary producer take a smaller and smaller percentage of the sale price and continue to survive, whether in the liquid milk, beef, vegetables, pigs or whatever farm enterprise? The percentage take the primary producer gets from the sale price has reduced very significantly. It is said that hard negotiations will determine the price in the future. Again that is grand but the person who is getting squeezed the whole time is the primary producer. If there is an argument on liquid milk, the margin is squeezed and the dairy cuts the price to the milk producer. We have seen the factories dropping the price in the past couple of weeks. Has that resulted in lower prices for the consumer at the point of sale? We have seen in the run up to Christmas for a number of years that very low price vegetables were used to attract the consumers into the shops, and there was significant cost cutting. Who carried the can for that? It was the primary producer.

In her statement Ms Goggins said the aim of the directive is to "ensure a fair standard of living". However, the reality is that primary producers are getting squeezed more and more. The major retailers are exerting a huge influence on the trade. The members of the committee went to a presentation in one of the hotels out near the airport a couple of months ago, where many good things were proposed.

We are not seeing the benefit of that as regards a fairer balance in the distribution of what is being paid for food. While I welcome the CCPC's opening statement, which is very thought-provoking, at the end of the day the primary producer is not getting protected at the moment; he is getting squeezed more and more. That situation is not tenable into the future.