Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It will because it means spending money on companies that have already made the change when perhaps we should focus that money on the companies that need to change but cannot afford to do so. I take the point that any policy must be fair.

On the queries by Senator Lombard, I am former Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine so I understand only too well the pressures on primary producers and, at times, the pressure they are put under by the retail sector in Ireland that is driven by a competitive market in the retail sector which has, by and large, functioned well in terms of consumer prices, and the EUROSTAT figures show how Ireland compares with other European countries. At the moment we have a particular issue where food inflation in supermarkets is running at double the rate of inflation. We need to be careful how we respond to that. First, we have got to get prices down to protect consumers. We have also got to make sure those price reductions are not at the expense of primary producers.

We must ensure the cost of the reduction in inflation that needs to happen in the food retail sector is not, in effect, transferred straight to primary producers. The latter are already getting too small a percentage of the final retail price, whether for a litre of milk, a pound of butter or a whole range of other products. Ireland is a big food producer. The primary food production sector, which includes farming, is a huge part of the Irish economy and central to our rural economy. It employs some 160,000 people. We need to protect the sector in the debate that is currently taking place. I assure the committee that we will very much be thinking about the farming and primary producer sector in any of the conversations we have with retail outlets in the coming days.