Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Goggin for her presentation which was informative and detailed. We are discussing the beef industry and its profitability in the future. Primary producers believe that, although there are loads of regulations, none of them protect them or looks after their interests.

Ms Goggin mentioned the Twenty20 Beef Club. If I understand her correctly, she is saying it is not large enough to be deemed to be anti-competitive. Does its size matter? Is a practice not anti-competitive, irrespective of the percentage share of the market?

The allegation about the operation of a beef cartel has been beaten to death for many years. If someone asked 100 farmers whether they believed there was a cartel, 99 would say "Yes". Ms Goggin stated a common price was not sufficient evidence of a cartel, but these operators are selling into different markets and getting different returns. It is more than a coincidence that, on a Friday evening or Monday morning, someone will have the same price quoted by all of the factories. The primary producer is convinced that there is a cartel. There was a time when a producer could ring various factories and get different quotations. That situation has evaporated during the years. There is no point in approaching a different processor now because there will be no difference in price. While I accept Ms Goggin's statement that a common price does not signify the existence of a cartel, the primary producers know that the processors have different markets and returns and that it is difficult in the extreme to explain to a farmer producing a beef animal that there is no cartel. The primary producer has seen competition investigations into farm organisations' activities and finds it difficult to understand why a similar investigation is not being carried out into how factories determine their prices on a Friday evening or Monday morning.

I am thankful for Ms Goggin's explanations in her presentation of the CCPC's mandate, powers and so on. It is good information for us to have. Fianna Fáil members will take it away and discuss it. As it is helpful, we welcome the presentation. I have raised two issues that, from the primary producer's point of view, I would like to see being debated.