Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is not what they are telling me. I am very concerned because the Minister said the Competition Authority wrote to him. It raided the IFA offices some years ago when it was seen in a blaze of glory taking on the factories and checking out what was going on there. I am checking the prices the Government is publishing. The Competition Authority has failed spectacularly in other areas. We have seen it with the supermarkets and in the magnificent concrete industry we had which has literally been destroyed by cartels. If the Minister is seriously telling me that he does not believe there is a cartel, I do not think there is any future in Food Harvest 2020. There is no point in playing games with these talks - going in and getting a higher price and the big companies then change the goalposts with the grading. That is what is happening. The Minister mentions costs. The cost of wages has been halved. I am not being disingenuous or racist but it is mainly foreign nationals who are working for them at low wages so they have made huge savings there and they are also screwing the farmers. If the Minister cannot see a cartel, I worry for the future. Perhaps he should go full time into defence and let somebody else take over agriculture.

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