Michael McNamara (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The amendment clearly states that sale or resale "may be prohibited by regulation". I have not changed it in the past ten minutes, hour, day or week. That is what it states; that is what I proposed. The Minister possibly did not read it, but that is his business.

The Minister seems happy with a scenario whereby Irish beef producers should produce below the cost of production and a Minister will have no power to do anything about it. I do not have all the answers. I am not saying or pretending I do, but I am saying that this legislation the Minister has produced is not the answer without additional powers. The Minister blames Deputy Carthy and me for not having all the answers. The Minister is entrusted with a seal of office. He is the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine of this State and goes to European Council meetings. He has that privilege, and it is an enormous privilege in this Republic. People fought in order that there would be an Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine as opposed to just one in London. The Minister could ask his Spanish counterpart, "By the way, how is that legislation you introduced working out?" Maybe it is not working out. I do not know. I am just a single backbencher. The Minister has a whole Department full of civil servants. He has access to the Attorney General's office. He has colleagues across the European Union. He has it all, and the best he can come up with is that there is nothing he can do to stop beef producers in Ireland having to produce below the cost of production year in, year out. Moreover, he does not want any power to do anything about it. I am not falling back on anything. This is just one idea. That is all I have, but the Minister has no ideas as to what he is going to do about this. If he had, they would be contained in legislation.

I want this regulator to work. I believe that somebody has been selected. Whoever it is, I wish them the best of luck, but I do not want them to have no powers of enforcement. I asked the Minister where processors are required to provide the information requested and he still has not told me where they are required to provide that information. I ask him not to be disingenuous and to provide that information to us.

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