Dr. Liz O'Sullivan:

Cross-departmental and cross-governmental collaboration and having policies that are in agreement with one another are important. We do not need to just look at subsidies that will help consumers to buy certain things; we need to look at government activities and how they subsidise various industries. Based on a 2021 article in the Irish Examiner, through Enterprise Ireland, the Irish taxpayer gave subsidies of more than €13 million from 2014 on to the infant formula industry. The infant formula industry is booming in Ireland. There is Department of Health and HSE guidance around breastfeeding, yet there is consistent marketing and advertising of the infant formula industry. The Department of agriculture encourages farmers to return to dairying, an outcome of which is infant formula. We need to acknowledge, across all areas of government, how policies or practices may be in competition with one another.