Mr. Ray Dolan:

I will begin by addressing the question on the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, because I am familiar with that organisation having previously worked for it. It had responsibility for communicating with consumers when it was established under legislation introduced in 1997. When safefood subsequently came on board as a result of the Belfast Agreement, the authority lost its remit of communicating with the consumer. As the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland has the remit of communicating with consumers, we partner it in that context. It was not a case of fiefdom building. This arrangement works well and the FSAI is happy with it.

All of our research is put out to tender and we have a good relationship with the various academic institutions. Certain institutions have strong expertise in different areas of food science. UCC, UCD, Queens University Belfast and the University of Ulster all have strong faculties in food sciences, but we often find that the specific areas of expertise differ. This becomes clear when they bid for research contracts because we have an open tendering process. Where commonalities are identified, institutions often collaborate to bid for a project, which also works well for us.

I agree with Deputy Brendan Smith that Food Dudes which was developed by Bord Bia was a great success. Educating children offers a route to reaching their parents. We are closely involved in developing the curriculum in this area and enjoy strong relationships with the teacher associations. We attend their AGMs and other meetings to make presentations. We take advantage of every opportunity to get into schools, both North and South. We are also trying to work with creches.