Ms Isolde Goggin:

I would be very disappointed indeed if the reputation or image was out there that we are on the side of the corporates rather than that of the family farm. We are on the side of consumers. That is our job. That is the job the Oireachtas gave us. We are not on one particular side or another in an industrial sector. Our mission, and the job we have been given, is to promote competition and protect consumers. Our approach to every single issue that comes before us is to ask what is the best outcome for consumers. It is no part of our job to mediate between competing industry structures. It is no part of our job to get into the beef process talks and state people should have this money or that money, as my colleagues have said. We are not a price regulator. I am not at all disputing that may be what is needed but it is no part of a competition authority's role or a consumer protection organisation's role. It is getting squarely into the area of sectoral regulation. There is no competition authority in the world that will get involved in talks and deciding what price should be as between two sets of businesses. Our role is to promote competition and protect consumers, and it is the welfare of consumers that will be at the forefront of our minds throughout this. We are not pro one side or the other on any of these issues. The side we are on is that of consumers. I will ask my colleagues to speak about the producer organisations.