Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

While I welcome the progress being made for 3 July, it is long overdue. Scarcely a week goes by without some issue arising about labelling, lack of it, or mis-labelling on foods. For example, a couple of weeks ago it was found that Irish honey contained honey from China. The best way to establish the origin of a carton of eggs is to take a peek at the underside of the carton and if one can interpret the code number one will know whether it comes from Ireland, the Czech Republic, Germany, or wherever.

The Food Safety Authority lacks resources to ensure that all Irish products can be guaranteed to be what they should be and that the labelling is adequate. I urge the Minister of State to ensure those facilities are provided to the Food Safety Authority, in so far as he is involved in that decision.

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