Ms Aoibheann O'Brien:

We are seeking to establish the growers project, which Ms Ruttledge discussed, as a national surplus food redistribution programme tackling farm level waste. The EPA's statistics record 70,000 tonnes of surplus at farm level but when we count pre-harvest, the figure is actually 122,000 tonnes. There is, therefore, a lot of surplus. From the research conducted by MTU, this is due to retail specifications as well as seasonal lack of demand. There are a lot of factors, particularly in relation to the horticultural sector, that drive surplus. There is currently a market for animal feed but in terms of the food waste hierarchy, after prevention, which is the work the team at MTU is doing and is very important, there is an element of that surplus that can be redistributed for consumption. We have based the programme on international best practice. Internationally, there are some farm level redistribution programmes which try to capture grade 2 product, for example, that is perfectly fit for consumption and make it available to community organisations. This means it has the twin benefits of reducing farm level waste and, from a social perspective, providing access to good surplus products to community organisations across the country.

It is a transitional solution. Prevention is the primary goal but the reality is that there are 122,000 tonnes of surplus at present. While we can implement a project on the ground today that can rescue a portion of this and make it available in order that the environmental impact is clear, the social impact is very strong. The project that we got funding for with the growers project through the Department of agriculture allowed us to redistribute 122 tonnes last year of really good surplus produce and make it available through local development companies in Donegal, west Kerry and north Cork, which has had a massive social impact in terms of nutritional value of produce. For us, we have a very clear goal to ensure that the diversity and consistency of produce we redistribute is nutritionally balanced. This also offers our 650 charity partners across the country access to another supply of great surplus produce. Ultimately, however, it is a transitional solution and in an ideal world, we would aim for the surplus not to exist. We could then wrap up the programme but we are quite far away from that at the moment. We have a project that is working on the ground and we would love to scale that further as has been done in other European countries, especially Spain and Portugal. That is in respect of the growers project.

On regulatory barriers, the food waste prevention roadmap and the priority actions within it are very strong in terms of looking at things like date-labelling and the good samaritan Act. All of the things that need to be done are outlined in the priority actions. What we would like to see, as Ms Ruttledge mentioned, is resources. That includes resources within the Departments to drive and implement what is within the food waste prevention roadmap. Obviously in relation to informed policy decisions, more research is required on unintended consequences but in terms of the priority actions within the food waste prevention roadmap, which are based on what has been working really well internationally, what is missing at the moment is resourcing for implementation of those priority actions.