Joe O'Toole (Independent)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus roimh an deá-obair atá ar siúl aige leis an post nua atá aige mar Minister of State with responsibility for food. Táim an-shásta seans a bheith agam cúpla focal a rá mar gheall air. Maidir leis an méid atá ráite ag an Seanadóir Ó Súilleabháin, this week I spoke to my lamb producer and he is allowing one of the lambs to grow into mutton, as I have said here many times before. That will be killed by his brother and delivered to me exactly like that. I make this point because I was the only person in Leinster House who opposed aspects of the Abattoirs Act. I said it would destroy local butcher's shops, and it did. They are coming back again, but it sickens me to walk into a butcher's shop and see a butcher taking meat out a plastic wrapping, something we never saw before 1991. It has made traceability even more impossible because before that one always bought one's meat locally, it grew on the grass locally and one went only to butchers who could provide that. Recently I was in a Chinese restaurant in Portumna and was delighted to see on every page of the menu that all the meat was locally sourced, with names of the suppliers available at the desk. That is very important.

I have real difficulty with the Minister of State's argumentation on the question of national schemes of labelling. There is a tiny town in the middle of England, just off the A1 near Grantham. It would have been in the constituency of the former Prime Minister, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher. It would not be any bigger than Dingle.