Mr. Tim Cullinan:

I will also answer that. We are at a critical juncture in all of this. The Deputy is correct that the UTPs will not do what we need done now. We need to strengthen the UTP and the only way we can do that is through legislation. Again, that legislation will be coming to the floor of the Dáil.

As we said earlier, the Minister has committed to doing this, but the legislation must be strong and capable of giving a person the power to go along the food supply chain to see where the margin is. We saw this in 2018, when farmers protesting at the gates over beef prices led to the establishment of the beef task force. As we stated here earlier, Grant Thornton failed to find out where the margin was at the time. We now have an opportunity to protect all sectors in farming but the legislation needs to be strong. It will be scrutinised properly in the Dáil and by this committee, which is important. The legislation needs to have power. We need to go a step further than envisaged in that, as well as having a food regulator, we need a regulation to prevent the use of food as a loss leader within stores once and for all. Our real ask this evening is to have the legislation we require. It will protect a sector in rural Ireland. It will protect not just one sector but four or five whose only route to market is the retailer. We need protection from retailers. We never see the profits of many retailers. They are in this country but their headquarters are in other countries right across Europe. We just have to get the legislation to protect our sector.