Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am on record as having welcomed the establishment of the agrifood regulator. At the beginning of March the European Central Bank highlighted that corporate profiteering was contributing to price rises, as firms are using inflation as an excuse to increase profit margins. To be clear, I am raising this issue on behalf of consumers and also on behalf of retailers and primary producers. What they are telling me is they are getting squeezed at both ends and the big food producers are in the middle. I welcome the Minister's commitment to monitor it, but what I am asking is whether the Minister will convene a meeting with the major food producers to have that discussion with them. As the Minister has said himself, the profits are not translating to the price at the till. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and people are being squeezed. Small businesses and growers in my constituency in north County Dublin will tell you that their margins are cut to the absolute bone. Yet, the ECB identified that corporate profiteering was contributing to price rises. Somebody is making money here. The consumer and the primary producers are getting squeezed. We know, thanks to the report, that there is no evidence of profiteering in the retail sector as such, but it has to be coming from somewhere. I would like to see the Minister take the lead on this. I respect the role of the agrifood regulator and Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, but there is a role for the Minister's Department here as well.

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