Mr. T.J. Flanagan:

Going forward, there are taxation-based solutions but they do not solve this problem. That is the problem we have. I also wish to make the point that we export 90% of our milk. It leaves the island. The ultimate customer or beneficiary of this, and the person who is making a product - whether it is a piece of confectionary or whatever - that is being sold around the world, is not an Irish customer. It is an international customer. It is being sold by Irish co-operatives through another co-operative but an international customer is the beneficiary of this. They are somewhere in the supply chain. We do not know whether they pocket the €100,000 that the Deputy mentioned or whether they pass it on to the retailer. To be honest, we should not over-expect the result we can get here with an international customer. That is the problem. While individual co-operatives and our federal co-operative have had lots of tough conversations with them, the movement thus far has been limited. The Deputy stated that a contract can be renegotiated. A new contract could probably be issued at a different rate but that just has not happened. However, there is the capacity, within the Oireachtas and the Government, to put in place revenue tools that would allow farmers to equalise their milk income average out over a number of years. We have been talking about one for the last number of years. However, the Government, the Department of Finance and Revenue have chosen not to do that. At every budget, we have failed to see it over the line. It is not too late. We could still do it, but it will not solve this problem.

From what we are being told by our co-operative representatives and our board, a relatively small number of people have the really critical problem. They are being dealt with one by one. One co-operative has amended the terms of the milk supply agreement in terms of the fixed-price scheme and has managed to increase the price on offer but most of that is coming out of the general pot. It is coming out of the other farmers' milk cheque. That is the reality. The problem has been socialised. There is no extra money to fund this.