Mr. Matt Foley:

We had quite a few POs ten or 15 years ago. I think I have been in three or four of them over the years. They come and go for various reasons. For those making investments it is a huge area of support from within the EU. There seem to be major difficulties in drawing down the money. There are two cases at the moment, one involving a mushroom PO and another involving a salads and tomato PO. They are not able to draw down through some of the regulations. In my capacity as chairman of the horticulture forum, I have written to the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, on the issue. On Friday I received a reply which we need to digest. His letter concedes that the rules are quite restrictive and need to be reviewed. There seems to be one rule in one country and then when applied in our country it is different.

On the PO side I can speak for the people who are having difficulties. They certainly felt the Department approved their plan of action but they were unable to draw down the money when it came about. That is the argument that has been put to me. They are in continuing discussions with the Department. Of a €5 million drawdown they will lose at least €1 million and it could be higher; I am not 100% sure of that figure.

Vegetable growers have been very reluctant to join POs because of the restrictions as well as the massive amount of paperwork and cost. Representatives of one PO recently told me that the cost of drawing down the money nearly negated the amount of money they were getting. It is being reviewed at European level. It is a very good avenue.

In conjunction with Bord Bia, the IFA looked at the whole PO situation in Ireland. About two years ago a report was commissioned and we carried out an investigation as to the best way to move forward. Through the horticulture forum we are trying to get a pilot scheme to get some vegetable growers to move halfway into the PO to try to move things forward. I believe the EU allocated €800 million last year towards PO and we are only drawing down a tiny amount of it.

Any proposed legislation needs to be two-pronged. We need national and European legislation. On a national level we have an opportunity at the moment. The door is not quite fully shut on the Commission as to any changes that could be made. It is very important that we push that as far as we can. It is also important that the Government keeps the pressure on Commissioner Hogan to deliver on what he is saying. Some MEPs have spoken in favour of some sort of legislation. Ms Mairead McGuinness, MEP, was very vocal in what she said. I would encourage any possibility of introducing legislation in Europe. We believe that below-cost selling is totally anti-competitive and needs to be addressed.

On the labelling issue, I do not know any vegetable grower who is not a member of Bord Bia or does not use the Irish logo. In order to place the Bord Bia logo on produce, a producer must have an identification number. It is not up to farmers or the IFA to check those kinds of things. It is up to the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine. We have always been pressing for more checks in this area.

On the matter of costings, we are investigating the possibility of cost plus, where we look at the cost of production and we then determine what margin we need to sustain the business and reinvest, which is terribly important.

I hope that is the direction in which we move in future.