Mr. Vivian Buttimer:

We met Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív last August and explained our situation. At the time we were facing into a bleak winter. In 1995 we were getting just shy of 33 cent a litre; in 2004 we were getting just over 32 cent and in 2012 just shy of 34 cent. In 17 years there has been a shift of roughly 1 cent and a bit. That cannot continue. In 2004 when we were getting 32 cent, we were paying €280 for one tonne of soya beans. In 2012 when we were getting 34 cent, we were paying €530 a tonne, a rise of almost 50%. That wipes out our winter bonus. That is not even the main cost, it is the extra cost.

I know a dietician who allowed me to use his name; I gave literature on him to Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív. He has been my dietician for the past 20 years. In his view the situation of Northern Ireland milk producers is not great. They have serious debts and they are in a similar position. Their industry was created on the bones of the disaster in mainland Britain. That is how they increased and it is spreading to the Republic. I do not believe in a voluntary code because we have a code of sorts already, yet when we politely told the multiples at the end of last summer that we were facing a problem, it fell on deaf ears. We cannot protest as a group of farmers. We are tied and the multiples know this.