Mr. Michael Dowling:

That was not the problem. The problem was what the retailers or food service operators were getting for beef. That information could not be got. The information on what factories get is compiled. That is how Grant Thornton was able to get the figure for the total value of the product exported from, or sold within, Ireland. That was not the difficulty. It is not as simple as going along, if I understand what the Deputy said, and saying we can find out what the retailer is getting because we can look at the price he or she is charging. First, it is nearly impossible to do that on any sort of representative basis but, second, a big proportion of what we sell goes into food service. Food service product comes out as a beefburger or some other sort of product, which is mixed up with other agricultural products on the plate people buy. It is not an issue that is very easily solved by doing a spot-check of what is on a retail shelf.

Grant Thornton had expertise and it did its best. It could not get the final price but it got the prices in between and that was, at least, beneficial in understanding what sort of gaps there are between farmer price and the price that beef is sold to the final customer, although not the final consumer. To do a survey of consumers to ask them what they think about specifications etc., would not necessarily give any information other than the fact that consumers probably do not know an awful lot about the matter. Producers are not selling directly to the consumer; they are selling directly to people who are either manufacturing, cooking or retailing the beef themselves. They are the people who create and who are the demand for Irish beef. They are the people Grant Thornton had to try to deal with.