Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

I heard the Minister of State's comments at the Anuga fair in Germany where he said that the answer to the Brazilian threat lay in organic production. We favour organic production but if the Minister of State thinks a multi-billion euro industry can turn itself around overnight and not have a GM component in its feed regime, he will put hundreds of thousands of Irish farming families and people in the food processing sector out of business.

We favour GM feed being made available to farmers and also favour the organic sector. We are in favour of consumers having choice. The Minister of State's approach in his Department is to eliminate choice, ban GM feed and put everybody into the organic sector. That is a recipe for closing down the Irish food industry overnight and is something this side of the House will not stand for.

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