Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I mentioned, I was in the European Parliament when the originating law, the unfair trading practices directive, went through. I followed it at every stage during that process and I was proud at one stage because I got the European Parliament to adopt a position of supporting a ban on below-cost selling across the EU. That is the pivotal measure required and it would answer the Minister's first point. Does he want to know who opposed that measure? Ireland's Commissioner Phil Hogan fought it tooth and nail, as did the Council, at which the Irish Government is represented. Does the Minister know what their argument was? It was that measures like that should be made at member state level. I voted against the unfair trading practices directive on the basis that it did not bring in measures that were needed EU-wide because some member states would be minimalist in their outworking of it.

Amendment No. 10 is not catered for in the Bill as it stands because this is placing an obligation on the regulator to determine the cost of production and publish it on an annual basis. That mandate is not in the Bill and we are asking the Minister to accept the amendment. He has said he will not accept it, which is incredibly disappointing.

There is a problem with the scenario the Minister has described in which farmers only receive a basic price for 10% of their product and do not get that price for the other 90% of their product. That suggests that farmers would not receive the cost of production because that is all I have heard about minimum levels. There are different ways of doing this and we have tried to engage on the different possibilities but I have mentioned the groceries order to the Minister. That was implemented at a retail level and it made a difference to farmers. They have told us that and they also told us that its removal made a difference to their livelihoods.

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