Joe O'Toole (Independent)

The butcher told me they were doing a great business with the hotel until they received a visit from the food fascists — I should say, the food Nazis — who told them they could no longer supply the hotel. The fact that they were selling meat to the hotel which might then sell it to me on a plate meant they had become wholesalers and would have to comply with a new set of regulations. I ask the Minister of State to examine this regulation.

The UK takes a different approach with the result that we require a much higher number of core sales for wholesalers. The result is that small butchers on the northern side of the Border are supplying restaurants and hotels in County Donegal while butchers in County Donegal cannot supply their own hotels because they cannot meet the same regulations. This may sound confusing but I do not have the time to explain it in more detail.

The Minister of State will pass what used to be the North Dublin Farmers Co-op on his way here every morning. If he did nothing else in his tenure as Minister of State than to convince farmers of the advantages of belonging to a co-operative and looking after themselves and perhaps taking a lower price in order to facilitate local buying and selling, it would be a good achievement as farmers' co-operatives need a boost. I apologise for being a little disjointed in my contribution.