Mr. Mike Neary:

It is not something I have direct experience of or that we deal with directly. I appreciate the question. I will comment in response to some of the examples the Deputy shared with regard to pricing. We have tracked, through Kantar Worldpanel, the real price of produce over the past 20 years, taking inflation out of the equation, and the graph has fallen significantly in real terms. There has been a slight increase over the past six months with inflation. Generally speaking, the average retail price of produce has, year on year, been devalued. The price is far lower while costs have gone the other way. That has led to the price squeeze in the middle and the challenge for producers in that regard.

The Deputy asked about talking to schools and the Department of Education. I mentioned earlier that we have a fairly comprehensive schools programme. We engage with many schools and teachers, and, through that, many parents. I mentioned the schools programme. We draw funding down through the EU schools scheme in the amount of close to €2 million per year.

We have national funds of €2 million. Through the programme, we are implementing Food Dudes and there are 300,000 children participating. There are 500,000 children in national school, and there are 1,700 or 1,800 national schools. Therefore, we are engaging proactively. It is about education, consumption and healthy eating.

We also support the industry through Incredible Edibles, which is implemented by Agri Aware. Again, it is all about growing, origin, how to utilise food and how to come up with some cooking inspiration. Another programme is Healthy Heroes. We collaborate with the Irish Bread Bakers Association in that regard. It is about having healthy food in your lunch box. It is a critical area in which we are involved deeply.

With regard to labelling in supermarkets and what consumers are seeing, we monitor very closely the quality mark from our perspective. We do a lot of market research on it, determining what consumers look at regarding origin and the message they get from that. Ninety-four per cent of consumers recognise the Bord Bia quality mark. It is so important when it comes to labelling. The mark is widely recognised and promoted right across all categories, including horticulture. The recognition level has not dropped. There is a huge trust factor involved. We regard the mark as a critical flag of recognition for the horticulture industry on the supermarket shelf, and that is why we have engaged in considerable promotional activity with the food choice campaign over the past six months or so. If asked, consumers sometimes automatically say they buy Irish, but the key thing is to read what is on the label, be aware of it and not make an assumption about it. Sometimes, it can be a bit disappointing at this end, and that is why the Q mark is so distinctive and recognised by consumers. That is where we focus our attention. We are engaging in a lot of activity on it.