Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Cullinan and his colleagues for being with us. However, I must record my disappointment that we have set to secure a meeting with two Ministers and one Minister of State, who we have asked to be present to discuss the issue of horticultural peat. It is nothing short of a scandal that they have continuously refused to co-operate with us in that regard. Nevertheless, the issues that have been raised this evening are incredibly important and I thank our guests for bringing them up.

Perhaps the witnesses will take this opportunity to outline to laypeople how it is that the IFA’s battle is with retailers. In my county, there was a protest outside Dunnes Stores by pig and poultry farmers recently. Many people stopped and asked me about it because the farmers do not sell their pigs and chickens directly to Dunnes Stores so they wondered why they were protesting outside the shop. I was trying to explain as best I could the issue of retailers suppressing the prices relating to agricultural produce. Farmers sell to processors and those processors agree a price with retailers. As a result, the first battle is with those who are underpaying the IFA’s members. It does not matter if Dunnes Stores decides to give away the food for nothing if farmers are paid a fair price for it. That is all that we want to see.