Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I want to congratulate Deputy Shane McEntee and his colleagues. I mentioned that already to Deputy Andrew Doyle. We look forward to working with them in regard to this particular sector.

I thank Deputy McEntee for his compliments regarding the work of Bord Bia. It is an internationally recognised brand for Ireland and it does excellent work. I have the opportunity at times to travel abroad and support its work in different markets. Two weeks ago I attended the SIAL exhibition in Paris where 14 Irish companies participated in the Bord Bia stand, which was hugely important and extremely successful. It was attended by one of the largest number of trade visitors - people with purchasing power - and meetings were organised with different Irish companies through the good offices of Bord Bia.

On the last question about a particular marketing focus in Brussels, I am not sure if Bord Bia had been invited to participate. I will come back to Deputy McEntee with the answer I got at the time but Bord Bia is involved in a huge range of food promotions throughout Europe and further afield on a yearly basis. Its calendar of events is extremely impressive. It will not attend every single event because there is more merit in participating in some events than others. It is recognised throughout the world for being an efficient, lean organisation and I know from my experience of travelling to promotions abroad with the company that we get access to important decision makers and people with huge purchasing power also.

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