Joe Walsh (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)

As I said in my opening remarks, Ireland has established an international reputation as a food island. We have some world brand leaders in this area, most notably Bailey's cream liqueurs. We can build on that work. The new organisation will be sufficiently imaginative to exploit this, especially in the amenity horticulture sector, where there are great opportunities.

Senator Coonan acknowledged the success of both organisations. Bord Bia has a strong track record, particularly in Europe. From 1 May this year Europe will have 500 million consumers. This is a great opportunity. There will be emerging sectors, such as consumer foods. Senator McCarthy talked about a relatively small industry in west Cork, Carbery Milk Products, which did not manufacture cheese of any description until a few years ago, when it commenced the manufacture of mozzarella cheese for pizza toppings, and is now doing a superb job. These are speciality and artisan foods. Bord Bia is giving special attention to artisan foods, which links into Senator Ulick Burke's concern about the supply of Irish-based food to local restaurants. I am not aware of the specific matter he raised, but I will follow it up.

One of the unique things about Ireland is that not alone would a person know his local butcher and abattoir, whose family have probably been in the business for generations, but he would probably know the cattle as well. This is something we should seek to preserve not only for Irish consumers, but also for visitors. They do not want to eat plastic, international food while they are here; they want a unique culinary experience. If they go to Galway or west Cork they want the uniqueness of the area to be transmitted through the food. We have a soil and climate in parts of Ireland conducive to producing excellent food, whether it is Connemara lamb, Bantry salmon or our famous black pudding. We must enhance our efforts in this area.

A number of Senators said this development was about saving money and reducing costs. It is not so much about the price of something but the value we obtain from it. The savings will be modest. There will be some administrative savings because there will be a single structure instead of fragmented structures, but the greater value for money will be the important thing. If Bord Bia is doing market research in an area, why not include mushrooms or another horticulture or amenity product? This is a sensible thing to do and it will work well. During our consultations with Bord Bia and An Bord Glas the organisations expressed concerns, especially about the amenity horticulture area. I hope I allayed those concerns. Bord Bia has 80 staff and An Bord Glas has 12. They are not large organisations by any means. It makes a great deal of sense to merge them. There was concern about the developmental role of An Bord Glas, which has done great work in the potato sector in packing and storage and distributing decent grant aid under the national development plan. This will continue.

Senator Mansergh made an interesting suggestion that people should get out of the gym and into the garden, and I agree. One can get great exercise in the garden and it is wonderful, after a long week in the Seanad, to do some work there. It is good for the mind and the body. Senator Quinn is a renowned retailer and initiated many useful developments long before people raised concerns in those areas. Senator Phelan mentioned labelling and traceability. I remember years ago seeing that the beef in Senator Quinn's retail establishment was from a producer in County Donegal. I thought this was great because not only did people know it was Irish beef, but they also knew the supplier, the breed of cattle and so on. We have developed constructively along that route, but we need to do better. That is what Bord Bia is doing through the Féile Bia programme. Traceability is not as good, unfortunately, in the catering industry as in the retail industry. People are entitled to know what they are eating and from where it has come. The origin of what one eats is important. Good work has been done in this area.

Senator Quinn spoke of business management criteria. We should consider the size of both organisations and the value for money we can obtain by merging market research, logos, quality assurance schemes and promotional operations at various exhibitions throughout the country and Europe. The Senator was very hard on the Department of Agriculture and Food. Its remit does cover food. However, if one is setting up a poultry or other industry in the natural resource area, it is not to the Department of Agriculture and Food one goes, but to Enterprise Ireland which has responsibility for that area of activity. In fairness to Enterprise Ireland, it has done well and there are good industries in food production, such as the infant formula and consumer foods sectors.

Senator John Phelan raised the matter of labelling which is an area where an exceptional job has been done. However, there is a weakness in the catering sector that needs to be addressed. This is a role for the Commission. However, it is not Commissioner Byrne's area but Commissioner Fischler's. I have raised the issue with him a number of times, particularly at times of food health scares. I have also established a food liaison group which does worthwhile research and recently produced a report on its findings. I sent a copy of the report to Commissioner Fischler's office because I want full traceability right through the food chain, including the catering sector. I take the Senator's point on this issue.

Senator Ulick Burke asked if Bord Bia had any success in opening up new export markets. The greatest success of all not alone for Bord Bia, but for the industry, was to get back on European retail shelves following one of the greatest food scares in recent history, BSE or mad cow disease. That scare was followed by the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Irish food exports, beef in particular, were excluded from European markets and even the live exports trade was stopped. In 2003, the Irish beef industry returned to the UK market with exports of up to 265,000 tonnes — 50% of our entire exports — mostly to retail outlets. Up to 150,000 tonnes were exported to mainland Europe. Irish food exports had been excluded from Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy and Spain. There have been many instances where certain foods and beverages have been hit with a minor health scare and the market has never recovered. However, in the relatively short time of two years, Irish food exports have returned to the market. We owe a debt of gratitude to Bord Bia for this development. The reputation of Irish beef is at an all-time high, so much so that we only need one more third country for beef exports, Russia. Russia took 85,000 tonnes of beef exports in 2003 and it is a valuable market which creates competition.

Members will be aware of the long saga of the Egyptian market where it was open politically, but commercially no Irish beef could be exported there.