Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Way back in 1995, I suggested to the Minister of the day that tagging of criminals should be an automatic occurrence. Nothing happened until this week. I commend the Minister for Justice and Equality on her announcement that she will do something about this. It takes a long time to get things done and, apparently, there were challenges.

Something similar happened last year. I tabled an amendment to the Finance Bill 2014 in respect of personal retirement savings accounts and the question of whether they should be taxed. The Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Harris, read from his script and said that unfortunately it could not be done. I am delighted that almost a year later this amendment has been made in the new Finance Bill. Things do happen and perhaps we are obliged to have patience.

I have mentioned previously the huge volumes of food generated everywhere, not just in our own homes but in supermarkets and hotels as well.Part of the problem in this regard is due to the fact that we still allow people to put "best before" rather than "use by" on them. The fact that a product has passed its best before date does not mean there is anything wrong with it. I recall an individual who supplied us with potatoes on which the best before date was three days later. He said, "They are new potatoes and it is best if they are eaten on the day of purchase. However, the fact that the best before date has been passed does not mean they have gone off." A huge amount of food continues to be wasted. Morrisons, a large supermarket chain in Britain, just announced that it will give all its surplus food to charity and will not throw out any more food whatsoever. That is an initiative we should support. In France, legislation which makes it illegal to throw away edible food has been introduced. Let us ensure that we learn from what is happening abroad and proceed to improve our country on that basis.