Maurice Hayes (Independent)

I support Senator Glynn's request for a debate on suicide, and also Senator Ross's call for a debate on higher education. These are both very pressing issues. It was reported in the newspapers last week, that the effect of a European directive was that retail butchers could only sell direct to the so-called "end users". As such, they were precluded from selling to chefs and restaurants. If that is true, it is not the way good chefs do their business and it could have a deleterious effect on some very good small specialised butcher shops, which might be delivered into the hands of the multiples.

Will the Leader ask the Minister of State with responsibility for Europe whether this is a wrong interpretation of the directive or if it is something that has slipped through, unnoticed, in the scrutiny process? Does it tell us anything about how we might improve our scrutiny and can anything be done about it?