Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. Milk is a sustainable, safe and very nutritious food product and we are among the best in the world in how we produce and deliver it. Whenever I listen to nutritionists on television or radio, they advocate for the nutritional benefits of milk as a food. As such, it is important that milk and all the dairy products that come from it are produced. Thankfully, we in this country do that in a way that is better than anywhere else in the world. Our farm families across the country do a tremendous job in this regard. Long may that continue. It is our objective to work to support them, not only in continuing production, but in ensuring that it is done in a way that is sustainable in terms of its emissions footprint and how it intertwines with the environment around us.

The National Dairy Council is a private, farmer-funded representative body.

It is approved as an aid applicant under the EU school milk scheme and that is the only context in which my Department provides it with funding. My Department has not made any funds available to the National Dairy Council for any advertising or promotional campaigns. If the Deputy has any concerns about the veracity of claims made in an advertising campaign, she can always contact the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, ASAI, which will consider and fully assess any complaint she may have.

Funding to Bord Bia is made annually by way of an Exchequer grant from my Department in order to fulfil its functions to promote, assist and develop the marketing of Irish food and drink. Bord Bia promotes on the twin bases of quality and sustainability. To be very clear to the Deputy, Bord Bia is not spreading climate disinformation. It is quite the opposite. It is a fact that Ireland has a comparative advantage in grass-based livestock production and the carbon footprint of a unit of milk produced here is one of the lowest among milk-producing countries globally because of our grass-based system.

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