Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the Bill before the House. The Minister and I have had this conversation at a number of fora but now that there has been an expansion of the living city initiative and an apparent renewed confidence in it, I would like to think that he would look at introducing a similar incentive for small market towns, or at least a pilot project. We need to drive change in rural towns. It does not appear as if ordinary market forces will encourage people to live in the empty houses in the centre of towns or over shops. Neither do these forces support the small independent retailer. We need to rethink our vision for these towns and how they become vibrant again. I very much welcome the CLÁR funding for the enhancement of areas deemed to be disadvantaged, particularly in rural ones, but these measures alone will not provide the sort of change we need. I ask the Minister to look at this again and at least introduce a pilot project for a number of them. I could come up with a few towns in County Mayo if the Minister is inclined that way.

I attended a very interesting seminar yesterday on tackling unfair trading practices organised by the IFA. It examined the weak position of farmers in the food supply chain, how they are price takers and how it is very difficult for them to get any sort of fair price for their produce when dealing with retailers, particularly multiple retailers and suppliers to multiple retailers.The power and might that the multiple retailers wield is recognised. I welcome the grocery goods regulations. Some of the measures include the requirement that terms of contracts be put in writing so clarity exists and also the minimum terms of payment which specify that people need to be paid within 30 days for perishable goods, which is only right. There are shortcomings. Under the legislation not all farmers are deemed to be suppliers. There is a grocery code adjudicator in the UK. We need an adjudicator here. The fundamental issue is that there is no control over the price. The most significant single issue facing farmers and food suppliers is below-cost selling by the multiple retailers. It has kicked in since the abolition of the groceries order in 2006.

I ask the Minister to have a serious look at this. It is a cross-departmental issue, including the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor. She was at the seminar yesterday and identified the race to the bottom. Below-cost selling depresses the price of agricultural produce. We need to do more than take a laissez-faireattitude to the market. The market is not normal or natural. It is highly regulated. However, on the farmers' side there are high costs and an imposition on farmers to come up with quality food to meet the very high standards we have. Therefore, the market is already artificially interfered with by us, for very good reasons. However, in many instances, the farmer seems powerless.

We must take a proactive approach. Multiple retailers are getting more and more powerful, hence the introduction of the adjudicator in the UK to tackle them. They are listed. They have such power, and it must be curtailed. Even from a sustainability point of view, how can we possibly justify that fresh fruit and vegetables grown by our own producers can appear in a supermarket below cost? Supermarkets are not paying the farmers and producers on time. The same applies to meat and dairy. It is unsustainable. There is a perception that consumers are getting a great bargain. We all know the bottom line for the big multiple retailers, as for all businesses, is profit. They are adding on the cost and getting their profits elsewhere. They are just luring people in. They are undermining small independent retailers.

The advent of the multiple retailers being able to sell below cost is the core of the problem of cheap alcohol. Minimum unit pricing is universally welcomed across the floor in this and the Lower House. I am perplexed as to why we are not, immediately and forthwith, tackling below-cost selling. Empirical evidence shows that the availability of cheap alcohol is one of the significant contributing factors to alcohol abuse and having a casual approach to it. Something needs to be done. I ask the Minister to take a serious look at below-cost selling and rein in the multiple retailers. I would appreciate the Minister's response on my proposal.