Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will make three quick points. First, Mr. Healy mentioned prices and said we have been ahead of the European average for the past year but at the moment we are €1.70 per kilogram and the European average is €1.87. Why can we not keep with the European average? What is influencing that?

Second, farmers are vulnerable once the input costs go up because they are price takers. For example, if I am feeding pigs and the pig is fat then the pig has to go but I am told the price on the day. If I am making coffee cups and my input costs go up I will sit down and assess my input costs and put my margin on it. I will not sell the cup unless I am given what I need to cover my costs. With that in mind, the day has to come when the end user, the consumer, will have to carry some of the flak. It cannot be the farmer at all times. What kind of downward pressure are the retailers and MII's customers putting on it to maintain the current price? What kind of contracts is MII tied into with the people it is supplying that it cannot pass on some of this to the next layer? I know it is hard enough with inflation but the farmers should not be carrying the can for the end user and consumer. The CAP was a cheap food policy but that day is long gone. How come the market cannot be regulated to try to get part of what is being lost onto the product and to get the price up to where it needs to be? Is there serious downward pressure being put on MII by the big multinational retailers? Is MII tied into price contracts? Why is the situation like this? If it is a coffee cup or any product other than a farm product, the producer adds the additional costs to the end price and the customer takes it or leaves it. I hope I explained the question I am asking correctly. I know we are price takers and that has always been the kernel of farmer problems. The day will have to come when someone else will have to start carrying the can. Can MII, in its position between the two sides, influence that? If not, why not?

Third, I have spoken to the IFA and they have already told us that 7% of the farmers are gone already with the potential for 20% or 30% to leave. That is all sows that are going out of circulation and out of the system. Can MII see a day coming when it will not be able to meet its contracts if this continues much longer? Will the pig meat be available to fulfil the contracts MII has if the worst case scenario of 20% to 30% of the pig farmers going out of the business came about? That would be a serious amount of sows out of production. Could it come to a point where, irrespective of getting new markets, MII will struggle to meet the contracts it has?