Dáil debates

Wednesday, 21 March 2012

3:00 pm

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

Deputy Collins raises the issue of the need to create an umbrella brand for Irish food. We are lucky to have a body in Ireland responsible for branding Irish food, trying to build our international reputation as a sustainable, safe, green, tasty source of food. We are trying to create that image, whether it is in dairy, beef, lamb, seafood or whatever. I think Bord Bia is doing a particularly good job at that. I have travelled with Bord Bia extensively, as recently as the last few days in the Brussels, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Wherever I go, the Bord Bia message is the same in respect of the brand it is trying to build around Irish food.

Bord Bia's motto is not just saying that Ireland has the most sustainable, high quality food in the world; it is about proving it. It is putting in place a series of mechanisms which can back up the public relations message with data. An example of this is the beef quality assurance scheme, whereby with every week that passes, we put a carbon footprint on another 500 farms. By the end of this year, we will have put carbon footprints on 32,000 beef farms in Ireland. In other words, we can put a carbon label on the steaks that come from those farms, if we wish to do so in the future. We are about to do the same in the dairy industry. We are going to roll out a quality assurance scheme that will be about managing and calculating the carbon footprint of the herds that produce milk. It will not just be about climate change and emissions; it will also be about the responsible use of water. We also have a whole series of disease controls.

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