Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I will share a moment of my time with Deputy John Browne.

I request that Dáil Éireann calls on the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and his Government colleagues to ensure that malt and malting barley production is retained in Ireland as a condition of any proposed sale of Greencore Malt to a foreign food company. We are all concerned at reports in the media in recent weeks of the sale of Greencore Malt. A number of approaches have been received by Greencore plc. I understand a French company, Soufflet, visited Ireland more than a week ago to inspect the various facilities of Greencore Malt as part of this process.

Approximately 1,500 Irish farmers grow 130,000 tonnes of malting barley each year and this has been the case for generations with an excellent tradition in many counties, including Laois, Kildare, Carlow and Wexford. It is a valuable premium crop and I am concerned that if this does not continue those farmers would grow feed barley, leading to an excess of feed barley production in the country, with a knock-on effect on prices. There is a malting plant in Athy and depots in Stradbally and Emo in County Laois and I am concerned at reports that they may close early in the new year. I also understand there are four depots in Wexford.

Greencore Malt was formed at the beginning of 2000 with the integration of three Greencore-owned malting companies, namely, Minch Malt in Ireland, Belgomalt in Belgium, and Pauls Malt in the UK. The company has 500,000 tonnes of malting barley in the three countries and the proposed purchaser, Soufflet, already has 1.5 million tonnes of malting barley. If it succeeds in this takeover it will be the biggest malt processor in Europe and perhaps the world.

I also want to highlight the fact that there is a very strong Guinness link through the Smithwicks brand to this malting barley and Guinness trades on its Irishness. It is essential that Irish malting barley continues to supply Guinness. If this link is broken it could have a knock-on effect for the Guinness operation in Ireland. I sincerely hope this does not happen.

Here we go again with Greencore. It closed the Irish sugar industry and thousands of farmers, employees and excellent plants in Carlow and Mallow were thrown to the wind with no benefit to the Irish consumer. Greencore is nothing but an asset-stripping company. It is like a pack of vultures and it is at it here again. That is why I call on the Minister and his colleagues to refer any proposed purchase of Greencore Malt to the EU competition authorities. The purchase by Soufflet would create a new company that would have too much dominance and may abuse it in due course. It would be the biggest malting processor in Europe if it succeeds.

Will the Minister call in the chief executive of Greencore and demand guarantees on the continued growing of malting barley and the continuation of malting in Ireland if Greencore decides to sell Greencore Malt and it is approved by the EU. I am very concerned about the future of farmers in this regard.

John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I support my colleague, Deputy Seán Fleming, in calling on Greencore to ensure that malting barley growing and malt production will continue in Ireland should it sell its commercial entity. Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny and Laois have been to the forefront in growing malting barley through the generations. It is recognised that they produce the best malting barley in Europe and they have consistently done so. I am concerned that Greencore does not have a commitment to ensure that malting barley will continue to be grown here. To lose this valuable product would devastate the farming sector in the south east. There would also be a loss of jobs in the depots in County Wexford, including the Minch depot in Enniscorthy and three others.

We already lost the beet industry, which was a major loss to farmers in the south east and it would devastate them completely if we lost the malting barley industry. Despite the fact that Greencore is a commercially independent company I expect the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Department to ensure that in any sale it would protect the livelihoods of our malting barley growers and ensure that malting barley growing and malt production would continue in this country for many years to come.

As Deputy Fleming indicated, Guinness and malting barley production go hand in hand in Ireland. It would be a major blow to the economy if a company from France purchases Greencore Malt and closes down production here. There is a genuine fear among farmers in the south east that this will happen. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that it does not happen and also that the livelihoods of farmers involved in growing malting barley will be protected.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Gabhaim buíochas don Teachta as an cheist seo a ardú.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has a long association with the malting barley industry in Ireland which dates back to the beginning of the 1900s, with the introduction of a Guinness-initiated programme of breeding and trialling to improve the varieties of malting barley available to Irish growers. This association was formalised in 1971 when my Department and Guinness agreed to share the operating costs of the programme. The programme ceased in 2002, due mainly to Guinness withdrawing from it.

A number of other significant developments also took place in the brewing industry in Ireland at that time: first, Guinness was subsumed into a new operating company, Diageo, and decided to cease buying malting barley from growers and instead purchase finished malt from malting companies; and, second, the Greencore Malting Group was formed at the beginning of 2000 following the integration of the three Greencore-owned malting companies, namely, Pauls Malt in the UK, Minch Malt in Ireland and Belgomalt in Belgium.

These changes facilitated the introduction of a new operating relationship and cost structure programme between the Department and the malting industry whereby maltsters identified the varieties for entry into official trials and became involved in replicating the trials; and the Department continued official trialling of the varieties and submitted samples from the trials as well as issuing the appropriate results and reports. The industry paid an annual cost to the Department for this service.

While this arrangement has worked well from an operational point of view, the number of malting barley varieties being trialled has decreased significantly in the past decade. There has been an increased focus and discussion between maltsters - particularly Greencore, which is the main purchaser of malting barley in Ireland - and growers' representatives with regard to the prices being paid. The issue of prices paid for malting barley in Ireland is a matter for growers and malting companies.

I am aware of recent press coverage suggesting that Greencore may be exiting the malting industry by selling off its operation. While my Department, particularly in light of its involvement in the trialling, will be monitoring developments, the issue of the sale of the company by Greencore is a commercial matter for those involved and I cannot become involved in any formal way in that regard. However, I will discuss the matter with the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Brendan Smith, in order to discover what action might be taken.