: As the Minister said, 80 per cent of the carpets are being imported. Is it not ridiculous to have advertisements on television asking people to buy Irish when the same television company go abroad and buy them in Holland when they want carpets for their new building in Montrose, while Irish carpet factories are closing? Is that not a ridiculous situation and would the Minister try to get his Department to do something about it?

: It is the concern of my Department to buy Irish. I will check out the Deputy's question but in my view we should certainly buy Irish.

: Is the Minister aware that recently RTE bought carpets in Holland and said that the quality of carpets here was not good enough for them? You could not beat that for hard neck from a firm who get £60,000 or £70,000 a year from Irish manufacturers to advertise their Irish carpets in a "Buy Irish" campaign. Surely the whole thing is a bad joke.