Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

Is it fair that some commercial companies are abusing their strong or dominant position in the grocery sector by exerting undue and unfair pressure on other commercial companies with which they have business relationships or transactions? That is clearly an imbalance of power in the supplier-retailer relationship in the grocery trade which leads to unfair practices being employed. Outrageous sums are being demanded by some of the big players in this sector - it is not the small or medium-sized shops that are doing this - in exchange for the privilege of getting products onto supermarket shelves. This is bad for both suppliers, including the farmers who cannot get their produce onto the shelves of major supermarkets, and consumers.

Is the Minister aware that the primary producers, farmers and agriculture-related industry, and the key providers of food are not getting fair play in the food supply chain? Their viability is being seriously undermined. The country will end up with no basic primary producers. Is the Minister further aware that the committee on enterprise, trade and employment produced a report which stated that a statutory code of practice, to be overseen by the Ombudsman, would have to be put in place? That is the position as a result of the third report from the UK competition authority. The UK authority is anxious to investigate issues, unlike ours which only investigates small concerns. It is time the Competition Authority took on the big operators in this country, not chase small shops and the like.

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