I return to a matter I raised yesterday, which is the marts. I have now seen the regulations that the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, has said were introduced last night. Unfortunately, they were only published today, as is the norm, and there is mention of agricultural services. I raised this specifically with the Taoiseach but I do not know if the Tánaiste has ever been in a mart. I presume he has, for electioneering purposes at least. There is usually a catwalk across which people can walk and farmers will not buy livestock unless they can inspect it. I am aware of a mart where Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine officials stopped farmers inspecting livestock. If this continues, farmers will have to sell animals from homes and farms, leading to more mixing of people, not less. Will the Tánaiste provide some clarity on this? It would be counterproductive for farmers to sell from their premises.

I have been in many marts but the Deputy is correct in that such visits served electoral purposes. I have yet to have the opportunity to buy or sell a beast in a mart. Perhaps that time will come. We will look into this for the Deputy. At the start of the spring lockdown, marts were pretty much closed but we made arrangements to allow them to operate precisely for the reasons the Deputy suggests, including animal welfare and to ensure sales did not happen away from marts.

We will check up on that and see what we can do.

The idea of catwalks in marts is a new one on me, though I live in a rural constituency myself.