Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

There is no resistance in the Government to country of origin labelling. We would introduce it overnight if we did not have the resistance from other member states. We are working on that and I will not give up on it. Deputy Doyle is right. A very serious situation confronts the food and drink sector and I talked about the quicker element of the response, which had to be brought about by special permission of the European Commission to allow for temporary state-aid rules in December 2008.

Deputy Doyle referred to the wild west. The Food and Drink Industry Ireland report uses a less colourful but equally accurate term when it says the grocery sector is dysfunctional due to excessive retail buyer power. We are working on the legislative approach with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the EU because there are other countries in the same boat as ourselves. We need a code of practice and a retail ombudsman, and those can be brought in before the legislative approach runs its course. We are working on these aspects with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

See this speech in context