Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to ask Ms Tacon's opinion on issues that keep coming up in discussions of beef prices, the share the primary producer gets and the markup charged by supermarkets and big retailers. I read Ms Tacon's opening statement before I came down. It refers to 13 regulated retailers. I have introduced a Bill to provide for price indexing in order to get some transparency in that area. While the Government cannot legally set a price, it can set requirements concerning the reporting of day-to-day prices. Such a measure would compel the processor to release this information every day. An observatory system would show the price the processor pays for different types of cattle of various ages, breeds, live weights, etc. Would Ms Tacon see something like that as an appropriate way to link the price paid by the retailer to that paid by the processor? Would that work? Is there a system in England to ensure transparency in the price the retailer pays to the processor? I refer to a system whereby the price retailers pay and the date on which they pay it is published on a daily basis. Does anything like that exist, or should it exist to make this market more transparent?