asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries how much foreign capital is invested in the dairying industry in West Cork; and if he will consider buying out the foreign interest and handing over the business to the local co-operative creameries.

I understand that foreign capital investment in the dairy industry in west Cork consists of a holding of shares, to a nominal value of some £273,000, in a milk-processing firm in which shares are also held by a number of local creamery concerns.

I have no information that the foreign-owned shares are available for purchase, nor whether the local co-operative societies would wish to buy them.

In view of the urgency and importance of this because of our entry to the Common Market, would the Minister agree that the officials of this Department should consult with the local co-operative societies and discuss the matter?

Any alteration in the matter of consultation with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries will be readily forthcoming, I can assure the Deputy. I should like to tell him too, that a firm in which the Irish holding was a minority holding—Miloko in Carrick-on-Suir—were actually bought out recently by local interests and are now an Irish-owned concern. This may be the idea Deputy O'Sullivan has in mind. If his constituents in whom he is interested want any advice on this particular topic from the Department it will be forthcoming, naturally.

With the difference in the situation if we enter the Common Market and the implications for the farmers and the suppliers, where will the profits go? Will they go to foreign interests or will they go to the people who are supplying the products?

As I told the Deputy, there is no indication, as far as I am aware, that the foreign interests in Express Dairies are available for sale nor, for that matter, am I aware of any anxiety on the part of local interests to buy them themselves but, as I say, if the Deputy wants to consult the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries as to the general situation in this regard we will be available naturally.

Question No. 31.

Is it not true that were it not the foreign capital invested Express Dairies would not have established this plant in Ballineen which is so helpful to the dairy industry and in providing employment for workers in the south-west Cork district? We must all agree that were it not for the foreign capital the firm would never have been established in Ballineen.

The establishment was founded by an arrangement between Express Dairies and Carbery Market Products Ltd. to their mutual satisfaction and, as the Deputy says, that is the reason why they are there today.