Tom Shehan (Fine Gael)

I will come to the second issue about which I would like to ask the Leader. The "cash for gold" industry has been mentioned in the House previously. It needs to be the subject of regulation and legislation. I would like to propose an addendum to that. The "cash for scrap" industry also needs to be included when regulations are introduced. A person might bring 20 copper tanks to a scrap merchants today, before arriving with four scrap cars the following week and numerous rolls of fibre optic cable the week after that. Such a person might not have any identification. Most of the material in question is stolen. There should be a process of identifying such people. This sector should be regulated. The "cash for scrap" industry is the same as the "cash for gold" industry. I ask the Leader to bring to the attention of the Minister the need for regulation and legislation to be introduced to stop this practice.