asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if his attention has been drawn to reports (details supplied) denigrating the quality of Irish food products and attributing a bias in favour of foreign produce to Irish supermarket management; if so, the steps he proposes to take to counteract these unjustified attacks, in view of the potential damage on the home and foreign markets, to this country's food industry and to vindicate the integrity of this country's supermarket management; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I have seen the reports to which the Deputy refers. I can assure him that the statements about the quality of Irish foodstuffs attributed to the speaker by one report was not made by him, nor in fact did he deal in any way with the question of food quality. I do not feel called on to make any comments on the speaker's expression of his views on other matters.

Does the Minister not agree that this is an unjustified attack on the quality of Irish food and on the character of some of our supermarket managers?

As I told the Deputy in my reply, the speaker did not make statements which were attributed to him in relation to the quality of Irish food by the newspaper in question, so there was therefore no question of his having attacked the quality of Irish food.

Is the Minister aware that this appeared not once but twice, on two different occasions, in the paper? If the speaker did not make this attack on the quality of Irish food why was it not refuted at some stage?

The question of a refutation would be a matter for the speaker himself and I cannot say whether or not he refuted it. There are two reports arising out of the same speech with an interval of about three or four days.

That is right.

The second one, as far as I am aware, is not inaccurate. It does not quote exactly what was said but it is reasonably accurate as a summary. The one dated 8th November, 1977, however, is not correct.

If the speaker did not make the remarks about the quality of Irish food, is it true to say that he made a statement that managements of Irish supermarkets were biased towards the sale and display of foreign foods as against Irish?

Not as such. What he did say was "We have allowed our supermarkets to be increasingly dominated by food manufactured outside Ireland and allowed our shopping centres and city stores to be packed with imported goods. Apart from meat, vegetables, fruit, butter and eggs, few Irish food products get on the supermarket shelves".

Does the Minister not agree that the vast majority of our supermarket managers are in no way biased towards English goods? Does he not think this an unwarranted attack on such supermarket people as Fergal Quinn and Pat Quinn who are doing an excellent job?

From the remarks which I quoted from the speaker he was talking about English-owned or foreign-owned supermarkets.

He did not state that. He said Irish supermarkets.

He said: "We have allowed our supermarkets to be increasingly dominated by food manufactured outside Ireland and allowed our shopping centres and city stores to be packed with imported goods." I do not think that is true of the great majority but it may be true of a small number of large supermarkets.

How can the Minister say he thought he was speaking of English supermarkets when he called them "our" supermarkets? Surely that indicates Irish supermarkets?

I have the impression that the speaker had in mind certain large supermarkets which, so far as I am aware, are not Irish-owned. Of course, the great majority are Irish-owned.

The remaining question will appear on tomorrow's Order Paper.