Mr. Damian McDonald:

Head 44 gives the Minister a lot of powers to make regulations, including the collection of price and market information to address issues of a lack of transparency and information asymmetry in the food supply chain.

Under subsection (j), the Minister should be asked to publish a regulation on that immediately together with this Bill. If we do not have that, we cannot address the lack of transparency. The ICMSA has made the same point. That is the first step here. We need to get the truth and understand what is happening before we can address it. What has happened to the sector this year with input increases is a shocking scenario. The world market generally has operated, given a return to farmers and driven that but our domestic market has failed in that the people who are dependent on selling their produce to Irish retailers are suffering the most. That means there must be a serious lack in our system somewhere along the line. We hear a lot of talk about increasing horticulture and it is mentioned as a priority in the programme for Government. Whatever about the feasibility of that with the growing conditions in various parts of the country, what is happening is the exact opposite. Our horticulture sector is contracting at an inordinate rate. Certain products can be produced abroad cheaper than they can be produced in Ireland because our production costs are higher. If there is not some intervention there, it is inevitable that more and more of our horticulture growers will go out of business. That is the reality of the situation because the retailers can get some of these products cheaper from other countries as they can be produced cheaper there.

The Minister is on the record now as saying he does not like the ban on below-cost selling. He is not the only one who has said that. We have tried to come up with a new idea, which is a ban on below-cost procurement. If retailers are buying a commodity, whether liquid milk, potatoes, fruit or broccoli, they should be required to at least cover the cost of production for the person writing it off as part of their sustainability criteria. That is not happening at the moment. There is no recognition. The market is not working quick enough to give recognition to primary producers for their input cost increases. The data on horticulture in particular are shocking in respect of how few growers we have left in the country at the moment.