Vol. 461 No. 4
201 Mr. Dempsey asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the plans, if any, he has to extend the butter voucher scheme to make allowance for those medically unable to use butter and who would benefit from vouchers towards the cost of substitutes. [3045/96]
The scheme under which butter vouchers are made available to certain categories of social welfare recipients is wholly funded by the European Union as part of the EU dairy market support regime. Any amendment to the regulations governing the scheme would, therefore, primarily be a matter for the EU Commission. I am not aware of any plans in this regard by the Commission.
It should be pointed out that the primary purpose of the scheme is to help support the EU butter market. Therefore, there would not be great support for including other products which, in fact, compete with butter. I might add that there are differing opinions, including within the medical profession, on the relative merits from an overall health point of view, of various yellow fat products.
