Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

Will the Minister clarify his reply? Did I interpret him correctly when he said there is no impediment to the process but it would be subject to an EU Commission proposal? Is there a clause in the agreement that resulted in the closure of the industry, which says that no sugar beet should be produced in Ireland up to 2017? That needs to be clarified by him.

Has he regrets? Does he now feel Government policy at the time was short-sighted in that even if we were not producing sugar, we could have used the sugar beet crop to produce ethanol to fulfil our obligations under the bio-fuels scheme and we would not have to import undenatured ethanol from third countries such as Brazil because we could blend it into stocks at Whitegate and produce an indigenous crop?

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