Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I guarantee that if the Government knew it would be giving out over €100 million, the announcement would have been made four times by now, with or without EU laws. The fact the Minister is saying nothing and is singing dumb means those of us on this side of the House do not believe her. If we are wrong, she should say we are wrong and tell us how much the farmers and Greencore will get. If the plant in Mallow is closed we will know very quickly and the Minister's shallowness will be exposed if Greencore does not get what it wants from her.

With regard to the nitrates directive, the way the Sheikh of Dubai, the Minister, Deputy Roche, was talking last night, one would think he was only interested in the environment and that this was a subject very close to his heart but this means nothing. What action will he take about the raw sewage pouring into our rivers across the country other than blaming farmers whom he regards as the chief culprits for every form of pollution? Huge amounts of raw sewage not of animal origin is being poured into rivers and seas across the country yet this Government has done nothing to invest in alleviating this problem.

Food labelling is an important issue. We have gone a long way towards preventing variant CJD. The feeding of bonemeal to animals was stopped because of the risks to health. However, food of unknown origin is coming into the country. The Minister is sitting back and blaming the EU for all the problems.

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