James Bannon (Fine Gael)

——when he used some unparliamentary language, I will phrase my next remarks very carefully. It is not overstating the case to say that the Minister's statement in this House last December was an untruth, and an extremely costly one for the Irish farming sector. This is certainly a resigning matter. The Minister has treated this House with utter contempt. The farming organisations that he claimed, on 14 December, supported him, walked out of the social partnership talks in protest at the regulations introduced by him. His spin and untruths have been contradicted by those organisations. Last week in Ballymahon, County Longford, the Minister was confronted by farmers when he was attending another function. He failed to meet the farmers when the local Deputy requested that a meeting be organised in Ballymahon last week.