Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

I make this point in the context of having been previously advised by the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, who is unavoidably absent today, that the code of conduct in the UK was not all it was made out to be. I have in the interim had time to reconsider the matter and that apparently is the case.

Does the Minister of State not find it ironic in the extreme that the architect of the dismantling of the groceries order in Ireland, who has now moved on to the UK competition authority and is in the throes of reorganising the legislative framework there, within which the retail sector operates, has concluded that a voluntary code of conduct and ombudsman is not the way forward and that global retailers such as Tesco are able to run rings around and abuse their suppliers by virtue of the lack of legislative clout that system brings with it?

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