Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to respond to the Minister's comments. What I am proposing to do in this amendment is give future Ministers the power to introduce such an order. Why does the Minister not want the power to introduce such an order? The amendments I have proposed do not require the Minister to do anything by regulation but they facilitate him in bringing in specific regulations to do certain things. I would have thought that the power to introduce a regulation might be useful to the Minister and future Ministers and might lead to less abuse in this area.

The Minister said that Spain imports lots of food and is not self-sufficient, unlike Ireland.

I do not see the supermarkets in Spain full of Irish olive oil; in fact, I see Irish supermarkets selling olive oil. Yet that is included very clearly in the ban that was introduced in Spain in 2021. I am not sure about wine. I simply do not know whether it is included. The Minister comes in here and trashes this suggestion. I am not saying that it would be easy to implement or that it would be a panacea. I am not making any of those promises. The Minister is the one constantly saying, "Whoop-de-do, we have a regulator." We have not given him or her any powers. I specifically asked the Minister to show me in the legislation where it is stated that it is an offence not to provide the information requested, and he did not do so. He pointed to the regulator's ability to ask for information. I know he or she can ask, but a professor of economics in UCD or Trinity College down the road from here can ask - anybody can. Even I can ask them, but they do not have to answer. They do not have to answer the Minister either, and he does not want to force them to answer because he does not want the power to do diddly-squat to help anybody. He does, however, want to give away what somebody would give future Ministers who are less limp-wristed than he is in trying to help Irish food producers.

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