Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Goggin for her submission here today. I have a couple of questions. She mentioned that the contracting models the CCPC sees used by traders are very different. They are all over the place and there is no consistency. Do I take it from that comment that she feels work should be done to try to get some consistency in the area and that a standard should be set up which people should try to reach? With regard to the directive, Ms Goggin also mentioned, as did Deputy Cahill, that one of the things stated in the directive is that efforts should be made to find a fair standard of living. That almost conflicts with the CCPC's position up to now, which has been to make sure that the consumer gets the best possible value.

From where I sit, one of the issues in this relates to organisations such as Bord Bia, which we have had in here on numerous occasions, that markets and promotes our food all over the world and spends vast amounts of taxpayers' money on trade missions in order to do so. The benefit of that work, from the point of view of the taxpayers' money which goes into it, should be reflected in the primary producers getting a decent income for the work they put in. I have had this out with the Minister on different occasions and he says that it is not his place to set prices yet it is the State's place to promote the product and the State uses taxpayers' money to do that. It would be a difficult situation in which to find ourselves if taxpayers' money was being used to promote and market the product all over the world and, indeed, in Ireland, to get a good price for it, just for the benefit of one sector within the industry. One of the difficulties that we have is the sector we see making most of the profit is the supermarkets and the processors - what we would traditionally call the middle men. The person at the bottom is being squeezed and, in many cases, the consumer on the other end is not getting the value he or she deserves. I would be interested in Ms Goggin's comments in that regard.

Ms Goggin also spoke about the implications of the proposed directive broadening the scope to include more traders. There is talk of a ban on below-cost selling, which again would conflict with the work the CCPC has traditionally done. In the interests of the consumer, this needs to be looked at on a more long-term basis. The consumer needs a consistency of quality as well as price. Sometimes the short-term quick turnaround, which can be seen in low prices, is not in the consumer's long-term interests because it ends up in monopolisation. I would be interested in Ms Goggin's views in that regard. Can we look to a more long-term means of dealing with this?

Finally, the issues around all this are basically about having a sense of fair play. I opened the cupboard this morning to make a cup of coffee and I saw fair trade coffee in front of me. That would traditionally have been coming from Third World countries yet we do not seem to have the same sense of ensuring that we have fair trade in respect of products coming from what we would consider to be the developed world. We need to consider that and re-establish some sense of fair play in that regard.