Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A major issue is that the price the farmers get for their produce is dominated by processors and the big players. Often, they do not get an opportunity, because they are basically price takers. That is the key problem, along with how to organise and how to form production groups and so on to ensure we get a fair price for farmers. I was speaking to the grain growers at the ploughing last week. A lot of their grain goes to the alcohol industry. They said if they got 1 cent more per pint of alcohol - beer, Guinness or whatever - it would transform their possibility of making a livelihood; 1 cent more. We see the amount of money that industry spends on advertising and everything else, but it squeezes the farmer to the last. I think that is the same in many situations. It is the same in the beef sector, the milk sector and many others. We need to have a firm hand of Government to act as a regulator, not just to talk about it but actually do it, to regulate the market and ensure the farmer - the primary producer - who takes all the risk and puts all the effort in gets a price for the work they do. That would revolutionise the possibility of ensuring we can maintain the family farm not just for this generation but for future generations.

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