Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This has been an excellent debate on this complex issue which requires and deserves thought and debate. I thank all my colleagues on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, in particular those involved in the drafting of the report, including Senator Mary Ann O'Brien, on the work that went into it. The report cannot be left sitting on the shelf; it must be dealt with and implemented.

There are a number of areas, in particular in the food supply chain, which are under threat. If protections are not built in, some products will not be available to consumers in Ireland in ten years time. Milk is one of those products.

I fully appreciate the retail sector's reluctance to go down the road of a code of conduct, an ombudsman, etc. I also appreciate the retail sector in Ireland has lost 50,000 jobs over the past five or six years and that it is the largest employer, with 250,000 people working in it. It is a profitable sector because the retail price of food in a supermarket in the Republic of Ireland is, on average, 18% above the EU average.

As stated by Senator van Turnhout and others, most of the multiples do not disclose the percentage of profit they make in Ireland. It is all thrown into the one pot, so to speak, and an annual worldwide figure is given. That is wrong. The European legislation the Minister quoted must be re-examined. The Council of Ministers must examine this issue to determine if there is a way to allow member states to force multiples who operate within their area to publish the profits they make within that state based on the expenditure of the taxpayers who buy products in their stores. I am sure there is a way of doing that.

This is all about the supplier, the small producer, getting into the big game and supplying the likes of Tesco, Dunnes Stores, Aldi and Lidl. The majority of retail sales in Ireland are in the small country shop or grocer but we have all heard the stories about them being driven out of business due to the huge buying power of the multinationals, and that comes with added benefits for the consumer. We must recognise that because it has brought about competition in the retail grocery sector, which must be welcomed, but issues arise in that regard.

I am fully supportive of a statutory code of conduct. It is the only way to give protection to the retailer and to the consumer but also to have checks and balances in place for the retailer, the producer and the middle man. I fully support the role of an ombudsman. There would be a cost but the cost in England was £5 million. With the economies of scale the figure would be much less here, but that is only 1 p per person for their weekly shop. We have to put this in context, and the retail sector must bear some of the cost.

On the continuing issue of so-called hello money, although the Competition (Amendment) Act 2006 was to deal with that, it has not. I have spoken to small producers who are still being told by major retailers that if they want the prominent position in the supermarket, they must pay hello or "coerce" money. That issue is not being dealt with because the small producer is afraid that if they report it to the competition ombudsman or the consumer agency, they will lose the contract with the supplier.

I agree with everything that has been said about the milk issue. There is a crisis within the liquid milk supply chain in this country. There is liquid milk and creamery milk. The liquid milk is the milk we drink year round, whether it is January or the middle of July, and there is additional cost because it is a year round production. Thirty-two per cent of the liquid milk suppliers have left the industry in the past ten years according to the National Milk Agency report of 2012. The farmer's share of the retail price has dropped over that ten years from 43% to 32%. While the retail price increases, therefore, the farmer's share, as referred to by Senator O'Brien, has dropped. Liquid milk producers are now producing milk at 7 cent per litre below the cost of production. That cannot continue. There are only 2,150 liquid milk producers in the State. If this issue is not dealt with, in five or ten years time, we will all be buying the UHT packets to provide the milk for our cereals, tea and coffee and to drink. That is something none of us want to contemplate and unless this issue is dealt with on a statutory basis, we will no longer have the carton of milk available to us.