Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Fixed-Milk Price Contracts: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. John Jordan:

Therefore, to be equitable we have to have a tie-in to 2023 and the two years at that price. That makes it equitable. Ornua's role goes back to Deputy Kehoe and creating value for Irish farming families. We think the best way for us to do that is to continue to drive and capture value in the marketplace through our customers, our ingredients business and our brands, pay a really good product price, and create as much money as we can in the Ornua value payment which we pay out. Our retained profit last year was €75 million. We paid out 58% of our profit back to members and retained 42%, which is a very small level. As many Deputies said, it is about targeting those serious hardship cases that are under financial and indeed personal stress and strain. We believe-----