Ms Gráinne Mulligan:

Under the directive, the 30-day rule applies to any product sold within that period of time. Payments must be made within the 30-day period. Under our existing national legislation, there is provision for the 30-day rule but if a contract is in place that may be extended for up to 60 days. The directive will considerably tighten that to a 30-day rule. As Ms McPhillips stated, there is a slight exception to that in regard to regular deliveries, such as in the dairy sector, where one would have up to 20 deliveries in a given month. In such cases, the price is agreed the following month, possibly at the beginning thereof, and then paid within, for example, 15 days of the following month. That is the only current exception to that rule. The directive considerably tightens up what is in place under our existing national rules.