asked the Minister for Defence whether he is aware that no opportunity has been given for tendering for supply of fresh meat to large barracks and camps in the Dublin Command; and whether it is the Minister's intention to have those contracts advertised in the near future and give the people engaged in the meat trade a chance of tendering for those supplies.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. [ORAL ANSWERS.] - MILITARY MEAT CONTRACT (DUBLIN COMMAND).
The Army provides its own Meat Supplies, as far as possible, to the Barracks and Posts in the Dublin Command. Cattle are bought in the open market and are killed in the Dublin Abbatoir by a special Army Staff. Tenders have been invited recently, by advertisement, for supplies of meat for three months, June, July and August, to the Barracks and Camps in the Command, where it has not been found feasible to deliver supplies from Army Stocks.
Will the Minister say how much per pound it is costing to buy it in the open market?
I can supply that information if the question is put down.
And in the case of the contractor for Gormanstown, who has a good national record, is it not the policy of the Government to give an opportunity to men of that character to enter into this contract if they are as good as the market?
The Deputy can put down another question on that.