Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Groceries Sector: Discussion (Resumed) with National Milk Agency

4:25 pm

Mr. Michael Kilcoyne:

From a consumer point of view, the consumer has never shirked his or her responsibility to pay for regulation. The consumer must be confident in the product that he or she buys, in other words, that the product is what is referred to on the label, that he or she is getting the quality and the truth is on the label.

Those who have dodged that in the past are some of the supermarkets when product, including their own label product, was not what it said on the package. If there is anyone guilty and owes an obligation to the consumer, it is these guys who have operated in selling products under their own brand which were not accurately described on the box. They were not penalised heavily. I believe that they should have to pay the penalty for this regulation and pay the cost of it.