Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for that. As I said, I have raised this issue many times. I have a sense, and I hope I am not wrong, that we are almost at the final hurdle. It has just taken so long but sometimes you get to a point where you can only look forward and you cannot keep looking back wondering why it has not happened before now. There is a huge level of frustration among the producers. They have attended so many meetings. They have complied with everything they have been asked to do. I hear it in what the Minister says and in his voice. I am prepared to trust him on this. I have done this before. The Minister can go back to what I have said in the House before. I have been prepared to listen and to accept he is doing his best. I genuinely believe that maybe we are there now. I will take his bone fides when he says that we are approaching the final hurdle and that within the next two weeks or less this will go to the next stage. Then we will get to the final stage with the application to Brussels.

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