Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

In response to Deputy Upton's further questions, the Minister, Deputy Coughlan, met the chief executive of the FSAI yesterday and one of the issues that formed their discussion was the implementation of these regulations.

As I may not have made it clear, there are more than 44,000 food businesses in this country of which over 29,000 are in the service sector. I recall reading a reply by the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, to a question tabled by the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, Deputy Pattison, where she outlined that on an annual basis two thirds of those 29,000 food businesses are inspected, and she advised that the number of inspectors and level of inspectors required to implement these regulations is sufficient. As Deputy Upton will be aware, the enforcement of these regulations is a matter for the FSAI, whose parent Department is the Department of Health and Children.

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