Mr. Philip Carroll:

I might comment on some of the things Mr. Healy said. Deputy Michael Collins raised the issue of the processing sector perhaps in some way contributing to paying into a levy. In terms of the scheme that was put forward by the IFA, ourselves and the millers, first of all, that was not one of the objectives of that scheme. What the producers wanted to do through the IFA was establish a levy that would trigger an investment by the State comparable to the value of the levy, which would be repaid over a period of 14 years and the total value of that fund, which is €100 million, would be set out upfront by the Government initially with a view to having 50% of that repaid.

Now, given that the value of that levy would be returned to the primary producer, the core responsibility of processors in the chain right across this, and Senator Joe O'Reilly mentioned this issue as well, is delivering the best possible market price. Deputy Michael Collins referred to that in the context of the 20 cent increase that was introduced quite recently. The same applies to that. If we look back over the last period, say, to February 2021, given that we have 1.5% of the output at EU level, Ireland has consistently delivered the best price over that period week after week, month after month. Only in a very short period and narrow window in the last few weeks has that price been exceeded at European level. What we have actually done is narrowed that gap as well.

Given all the complexities of trade, the additional costs we face and the fact that we do not have an internal market that has scale, and bearing in mind that for 1.5% of the EU market, 30% of that goes on the Irish market, we have very little influence on the market. The influence we have, however, is to pressurise as much as we can to get a better return from the secondary sector and retail sector etc. That in itself will only deliver a portion of that gap in between, however.

There has been a little bit of a focus in some of the discussion around that price and the price that has been paid whereas the reality, which evolved out of the discussion, is that paying a price at €1.70 was a substantial price to be paid in the pig meat market until we arrived at the situation where we had a massive increase in the input cost at farm level. That response then needs to come from the market but it will only come from the European market. It is not going to come in a decisive way from what is delivered on the Irish market by higher value contracts from secondary processors and retailers. It will only come from the European market. That is beginning to be delivered but we have to see where that lands. Mr. Healy has given the committee an indication of where that might need to land in order to meet those additional costs that primary producers are facing.

On the other issue around the 10% reduction, which Deputy Michael Collins may have mentioned and which Senator Joe O'Reilly certainly did, the key issues we spoke about are where it makes sense on any scale to introduce that type of reduction given the scale of operation we have at the moment with 300,000 tonnes against 23 million tonnes. If we are not careful, we will get our industry swallowed up by the might of the European industry. Picking up 300,000 tonnes is not significant if one is already producing 23 million tonnes. We have to be careful that we do not reduce our competitiveness space further than the way in which it has currently been eroded by the high input prices. Bear in mind that we cannot capture the value of that erosion in input costs from our domestic market. That is a massive challenge. If there is a provision in the conditionality around the fund that is now about to be announced, it cannot include that provision. It simply makes no sense at any level at all. All it simply does is deprive those who are producing efficiently and makes them produce inefficiently. I do not know if there were any other questions.