Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 30 and 31 together.

My Department has not received a written complaint about this issue.

Under Section 15 of the Education Act 1998, the board of management is the body charged with the direct governance of a school and is therefore responsible for making decisions on the types of activities in which the school gets involved. Clearly there are two different issues here — commercial links between companies and schools and food-testing in schools.

General commercial links include a wide range of activities. A school may be delighted to benefit from the sponsorship of its football kit by a local business or the provision of work experience opportunities for its students. Clearly, there are other far more sensitive issues and this is why my Department's circulars, while entrusting the school authorities with deciding which activities to engage in, explicitly require them to ensure that pressure is not placed on parents to buy particular products.

My Department's concern is to strike a balance between allowing schools to benefit from positive links with businesses and protecting children and their parents from inappropriate marketing. The decision as to whether to accept sponsorship, partake in promotions or engage with research is one for the board of management. Naturally, the board should only engage in activities that are in the best interests of its students.

I was surprised to hear that food was being tested in primary schools. Food companies have plenty of opportunities to test their products in supermarkets with the children's parents present to decide what they want their children to eat, being mindful of allergies and healthy eating objectives etc. My Department has not received any written complaints from parents in the schools involved and if a parent has a difficulty with such activities the matter should be raised with the board of management of the school. Nonetheless, I believe that boards should be wary of getting involved in such activities, particularly given that each child has different dietary requirements.

My officials have been in touch with the Dublin Institute of Technology regarding this practice and have been assured that in any future activity of the Dublin Institute of Technology Food Development Centre that involves food testing by school pupils, it will request the written approval of parents.

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