Mr. Kevin McPartlan:

The way it works is that our members will supply products to wholesalers. Retailers then come to the wholesalers, take the products off the shelves and sell them in whatever way they sell them. We are not in the business of having end user licences for food products. We sell into the supply chain and do not have control over who buys or how they retail them.

One point I forgot to address made by Senator Catherine Noone was about expenditure on advertising compared with the spend on other things. The reputational damage is significant if food companies are attacked for having products in schools. The reason none of the food companies puts its stuff into schools is that it does not think it is an appropriate place and it knows that there is reputational damage involved. I do not think any member of Food Drink Ireland would be unhappy not to have products in vending machines in schools. It is not something over which we have any control. If I gave the committee some reassurance, it would be disingenuous because I do not have any control over it.