(Cavan-Monaghan): Is the Minister aware that the pig industry is going through a very difficult period and that one of the causes of that situation is the dramatic increase in the price of pig feed? While the Minister's statement about the history of control and decontrol is correct I should like to know if the Minister is aware that there appears to be second thinking on this subject and that it is felt it would be better to have animal feed controlled and not allowed to fluctuate on the market?

I am aware that there are difficulties in the pig producing industry and I will ask the commission to consider whether the introduction of control on pig feedstuffs would be of any benefit. It is only fair to say that on the face of it it seems unlikely that it would because if the commission felt that there was any undue profiteering or lack of competition among those selling these feedstuffs they would have advised me by now to reintroduce the older form of control.

(Cavan-Monaghan): The pig industry seems to be getting a bad squeezing between high interest rates on the one hand and the cost of pig feeding on the other. Will the Minister have the matter investigated?