Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputies Naughten and Crawford for tabling this motion and giving me the opportunity to speak on it. I am sharing time with Deputies Connaughton, Coveney and Deenihan. I will not lecture the Minister on the price of cattle and so on.

I come from a country steeped in agriculture and the agricultural industry has been of the utmost importance to us in County Wexford over many years. The Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture and Food, Deputy Browne, is from the county and I hope he will do the agricultural brief proud when he delivers Bord Bia to my home town of Enniscorthy. I have no doubt he will do that before he ends his career in the Department.

I will say a few words on traceability, food labelling and the importance of our clean Irish food. When a consumer buys food, specifically meat, the first thing he or she — usually it is the woman of the house — looks for is quality. We have very high quality Irish meat in our supermarkets and we can be proud of that. We are not utilising that product properly in terms of selling it outside Ireland. We have lost many markets over recent years. The Minister is new in the Department and I ask her to do her best to ensure that we regain all the markets we have lost. It is not easy to sell food abroad but we can be proud of what we have done.

Deputy Naughten spoke about food labelling and the sale of food in restaurants and hotels. Féile Bia has been one of the best initiatives ever taken and it is a pity more restaurants and hotels have not signed up to it. However, most hotels have applied Féile Bia standards and that is great to see. Many hotels import beef from outside Ireland and do not inform us of its origins because they can acquire it cheaply and sell it in their meals at expensive rates.

The importance of Irish food was seen over the past year, especially with the opening of farmers' markets. The Minister of State, Deputy Browne, and I have been involved in establishing a farmers' market in Enniscorthy. It is brilliant to see that market in the town every Saturday morning. People bring in home-made produce, meat, vegetables and so on. It is great to see housewives buying that produce straight from the farm gate. As the farmers say, the middleman is being cut out and it is great to see that happening. Farmers are getting the right prices for their food and it is brilliant to see that. It is a pity we do not see more such markets throughout the country. From talking to my colleagues I understand they are spreading in the country towns. Will the Minister give that movement more publicity through her Department in so far as she can? We have Bord Bia and the enterprise sections of different Departments. Will the Minister ensure that the concept of the farmers' market is increasingly promoted? We are not sufficiently proud of our food and if we sell the concept of the farmers' market, I have no doubt that we will be on a winner.

Regarding food labelling, the Minister knows as well as I that people are bringing in foreign beef, chicken, lamb and so on to Ireland. Will she inform the House what she is doing to stop this meat coming in and what the Department is doing about the hooligans and gangsters involved who are trying to fool Irish people about their own prime food? Perhaps the Minister would consider the motion before the House.

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