Mr. Joe Healy:

The questions have all been answered. Deputy Martin Kenny must have bought that book because he read a good bit of it. He would never have been left standing in the shop that long. There are good lines in it. A line in my presentation stated that we believe the directive should apply to the full food supply chain. This position has also been accepted by COPA-COGECA. Ms Graham covered that earlier.

Deputy Cahill asked about percentages. If we go back to the 1960s, we can see that 30% of average household income was being spent on food. Depending on where someone is in Europe, somewhere between 10% and 15% of the average household income is spent on food. Apart from three tiny increases in 2011, 2012 and 2013, consumer spending on food has dropped. We saw it in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and in the past three years. The consumer is getting very good value.

We need to avoid unsustainable discounting. There is no need for it - be it with regard to milk or vegetables. We have seen that at various times during the year, particularly at Christmas. I do not think it happened last Christmas with vegetables but it happened the previous year. It was said earlier that this unsustainable discounting is an insult to the producer and the food. It adds to food waste. While someone said earlier that cheap food was good for the consumer, it is not really good for them. It will put farmers, businesses and retailers out of business because it is a race to the bottom. We have spoken to retailers who have told us that there is no need for them to lower prices and that they do not wish to lower them but that they have to follow the pack. If one or two have gone before them, they feel they must go there as well in order to maintain market share. This race to the bottom is not good for anyone. We talk about many strands of sustainability such as social or environmental sustainability but the sustainability of the farmer and producer of the raw material must be paramount.

To borrow Mr. McCormack's words, we hope this is a step in the right direction. It is a bit like the fodder crisis. Any one solution is not going to be the answer to all ills but it is a good step in the right direction and we need to ensure we support it at all levels, be it at our level or that of the committee. The important part is that there is a review of the directive after three years so we should watch out for what we might not have got right at the start and make sure we get it right in three years time when the review takes place.