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118. Mr. J. Walsh   asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if he will have arrangements made to extend the butter voucher scheme to include low-fat spreads. [4727/96]
128. Miss Flaherty asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry if he will assess the effectiveness and efficiency of butter vouchers and consider widening their application to dairy-spreads in the short time and in the long-term paying the money directly to the welfare recipients in view of the cost of administering the scheme. [4616/96]
Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. Yates): I propose to take Questions Nos. 118 and 128 together.
The measure concerned is one which is wholly funded by the EU as part of the market support arrangements in the [813] milk sector. Therefore, any amendments on the lines indicated by the Deputy would be a matter for the European Commission in the first instance.
However, I should point out that, given that the primary purpose of the scheme is to promote the consumption of butter the European Commission would not be likely either to extend it to cover products which compete with butter or to allow payment directly to recipients.
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