Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Mr. Jordan has acknowledged that everybody who is selling under a fixed price contract at the moment is losing money, that is, the farmers. Everybody else in the market chain, including the co-ops, Ornua and their purchasers, have quite an amount of security. The only people who are taking a hit in this instance are the primary producers, the people who, I would argue, are the most important in the chain.

Does Mr. Jordan accept my proposition that if further action is not taken, it will undermine the future of the fixed contract price model into the future?

As the Cathaoirleach has rightly said, very few farmers will be willing to engage in the process in the future because of the experiences in the here and now and the failure of other players in the market to burden-share to any substantial degree.