Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Indeed, and I wish I had some knowledge but all I can say is that the Just Ask scheme is far better value for money than the cost of running the Féile Bia scheme. This is not the only reason for the change and I hope Deputy Sherlock agrees with that. We were getting less and less buy-in to the Féile Bia scheme and we needed a reality check; we could not blindly continue with the Féile Bia scheme when of the 81 applications received in 2008 only seven restaurants met the criteria. It needed to be examined and reviewed and the outcome of that review has been a better value for money scheme.

I will not say that was the primary reason for it; it is really about empowering the consumer. There was a level of confusion among consumers. On the one hand there was Féile Bia, which was in Irish, but, on the other, it was not as widely applied throughout the country as it should have been and it was becoming increasingly irrelevant. The Just Ask scheme is a fresh approach and, as I indicated, it is receiving good support from the public.

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