Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I would like to support Deputy Kerrane on that. We touched on the issue of the regulator during last week’s debate. Having a regulator without teeth is the same as not having a regulator at all. We have seen the operations of some large conglomerates, particularly over the past 20 years. I highlighted in the past in this Chamber what happened to the farmers and the people who were involved, for example, in the production of vegetables in Ireland. There was a phoney price war where some conglomerates started virtually giving away vegetables at crazy, ridiculously low prices. That had an effect on the producers at the time. What they were doing was sinful. They were squeezing those people. If you were, for instance, a farmer who concentrated just on growing carrots, then that was your production and you were set up for that. These people then started virtually giving them away for nothing and for far below the cost of production and it was ultimately the farmer who was going to pay for that.

These conglomerates - I will not give them the satisfaction of naming them - are the larger supermarkets that over the years have closed down the smaller shops. At the start of my contribution, I should have said that I am the owner of a small shop. I want to declare that but I feel that empowers me to know what it is like. I have been a retailer for more than 30 years. I know what it is like to employ people on a small scale. I know what it is like to provide a service on a small scale to rural areas. I have seen the way small shops have been squeezed out. In the parish where I am from, there had been 26 shops and there are two today. When we speak about all these big people coming in, building a lovely, big shop and creating 70 jobs, there is nothing said about the 150 jobs they displaced, because they closed down all the smaller shops. The parish I come from is not unique in that. It had 26 and that number went down to two. That is replicated up and down the length and breadth of the country. When you see these big supermarkets and when you think they are great, just remember that an awful lot of small counters were closed to allow those places to open.

They play with their suppliers. What I mean by saying they “play” with them, it is like the example I gave of the person who might be selling carrots and nothing else. They are sucked into having their purchaser take all their produce from them. They have them under their thumb. That is what these people specialise in doing. They take on farmers, they take their produce and it is at their price. If they want to have a phoney price war, like what we have seen going on in the past couple of weeks with bread and milk, who do they want to pay for it? They want the farmer to pay for it. The farmer cannot afford to pay for it, because production costs what production costs. Over the last 18 months, we have seen a massive increase in the cost of fertiliser, feed, electricity, energy, basic inputs, diesel and the costs of harvesting. All the basic input costs that farmers have to pay have risen enormously. Their costs have gone up enormously but, unfortunately, their income has not. It is the exact opposite. It has stayed the same or, in many cases, it is less.

This is why a regulator has to have teeth. It has to be able to ensure fairness for the person who is supplying the food to the big shops. There also is the whole situation with regard to beef. Again, I am a person who in small way produces beef every year and sells it, so I know exactly what it costs to produce a kilo of beef. I know exactly what it takes, whether that relates to the feed, the time you put into it, the cost of buying animals, what you get for selling them and all the costs you have to take out of it. It is a terribly small margin. That is when everything goes right. If you have any bit of hard luck at all, for example, if you have a pen full of animals and something happens and you lose one animal, well that is it. That is the ball burst and the game is over. You will lose in that whole pen of cattle, then, because you will not have anything. You will make nothing for your trouble. We have to be so conscious of that.

If you look at the price of beef or pigmeat and what it makes versus what it is costed out at over the counter, there is an awful difference. Somebody is making money. Somebody, somewhere along the line is making a lot of money but it is not the farmer. As a small retailer, I can tell the Minister it is not the small retailers. The big conglomerates have an awful lot to answer for. They are the only people who are fearful of a regulator. The small retailers of Ireland have nothing whatsoever to fear from a regulator. It is these people who buy three and four pages every Sunday. They have our Sunday papers spoilt now. There is no good any more in buying a Sunday paper because it is like buying a paper of advertisements. Who wants to pick them up? I will not name them, because that would be wrong. Yet, when you buy a mainstay Sunday newspaper and turn a page over, the next thing is there will be a double page about some shop. If you go over another few pages, there will be a double page about some other shop.

These are the people who are screwing the farmers at the end of the day. It is no wonder they are able to buy advertisements in the Sunday newspapers that cost tens of thousands of euro every Sunday. They are able to afford it. The small retailers cannot afford it because the small retailers are only trying to keep their doors open. I hope the regulator will have teeth, will be meaningful, will have a purpose and will be of benefit to the consumer and the producer, because they are the important people; the people on both sides of the chain.

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