Mr. Teddy Cashman:

On retailer margins, legislation was introduced this year relating to competition. Our biggest problem with it is that it did not go far enough in terms of having an Ombudsman, as is the case in the UK. Below-cost selling is also not banned any more. Those kinds of instruments are helpful to keep things in line. I have stated in the past that we need legislation and not aspirations to make these things work. We have heard many aspirations but have not seen enough done on the legislative front to ensure they are realised. This is about fairness. When we speak of the product chain in Ireland or any other market, there is the retailer, the processor and the farmer. We are farmer representatives but it is fair to say that each link in that chain needs to be paid. Money is being transferred and the economics work through the economy for that to happen. We are looking for a clear portion of the retail price to be passed back to the farmer to ensure our costs of production are covered and we can make a margin. We do not begrudge others in the chain their margins or their businesses but we need enough to keep us alive and to ensure there is fairness in the system. What was introduced in the retail legislation in Ireland has not gone far enough. Commissioner Hogan has made noises around this issue at a European level. I attended a National Milk Agency meeting today. One of the issues the chairman raised at the meeting was how prices for dairy products have crashed so hard across Europe and in fairly mature retail markets such as France, Germany and the Netherlands. A huge amount of the produce of those countries is sold to big home populations. We have a low population relative to our dairy output and are largely an exporting nation. Those other countries would not face the same scenario. There has been a certain amount of use or abuse or whatever way one might want to describe it of the situation by the retail sector to gain more margin. The sector has been opportunistic in some markets.

When it comes to the retail scenario, my view is that this concerns fairness. As a matter of fairness, there should be proper remuneration at every point along the chain. Farmers carry the greatest cost. We also return possibly the most to the economy because we source our raw materials here. Unlike foreign direct investment, to a large extent, all the input costs come from the Irish economy. The money is transferred around the economy and benefits everyone. The same scenario applies to the 75 farmers in Ballyragget mentioned earlier.

In the context of the retail scenario, it is about fairness and having proper legislation in place because aspiration does not work and what is required must be properly legislated for. The legislation does not go far enough. We need to support European legislation to create fairness in the context of that scenario.