Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a valid question and is an issue we are working on currently. I have spoken to my Northern Ireland counterpart, the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, Michelle O'Neill, who is also anxious to progress this issue. A technical discussion has commenced at a very senior level in both Departments to determine how we can facilitate this. However, it is not as simple as one might think. There are potential problems with us supporting Northern Ireland in putting an Irish label on the food it produces because I, as an Irish Minister, must stand over Irish food in terms of its integrity, safety and so forth. If we have a food safety problem that emanates in Northern Ireland, over which I have absolutely no control in terms of supervision, veterinary standards and so on, the Irish food industry could be significantly damaged. This is a genuine problem but we are working to solve it so that food produced in Northern Ireland can be labelled as Irish. Currently such food can be labelled as coming from the island of Ireland, but producers in Northern Ireland want to be able to label it as Irish. They also want to be able to label it as British, depending on the market they are supplying. It is a bit of a having-one's-cake-and-eating-it situation but having said that-----

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