Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In regard to subhead E2, the Food Safety Promotion Board is the official name of safefood. safefood is the brand name in the same way that the official name of Fáilte Ireland is the National Tourism Development Authority. It is a North-South body, and the reason the provision is being cut is that it is part of an agreement with the North to reduce funding for all North-South bodies. That largely flows from the austerity that is now taking hold in the North. The Deputy will be aware that the parties in the North agreed an austerity programme to cut the number of public servants by about 20,000, to close minor injury units and to impose many of the kind of cuts in the North that, thankfully, are not happening in Ireland.