Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. His passion and enthusiasm for this sector is clear and we are all grateful for that.

Before addressing the main issues, I suggest that one of the issues with regard to people wishing to get into the food industry at a micro level or on a small scale, with a view to expanding later, is the difficulty in finding a suitable premises. For example, kitchens that conform to health and safety regulations are not readily available to the many people trying to get in at the micro level. Perhaps that is something we should address.

Another issue that has come to my attention recently is that there seems to be a shortage of people trained to work in the forestry sector. While we may be able to plant the trees, there is a dearth of trained workers to manage the sector. Perhaps we should proactively seek people for training in that area so that the industry can develop.

It is heartening to hear that the smaller sections of our food industry are being so well promoted, and I support the Minister of State on that. Being from Sligo, I am pleased to stand next to my neighbour from Leitrim. Perhaps together, we can enliven debate in the Seanad on agriculture and agribusiness.

I want to focus my remarks on the idea that we are now in the business of an industry, the food industry. I remember when training to be a food scientist I worked for a while in a factory where our first job in the morning was to pick the flies out of the cheese vat. This job was particularly difficult because the cheese was soft curd and the flies sank into it. It was a type of paddling exercise trying to pick out the flies. That was before the days of good health and safety regulations but it is a reminder of the constant challenges that face the food industry. I have never forgotten that job and the image of the flies has remained with me. I was not very good at picking them out.

We now eat food produced in factories by an industry and no longer eat the potatoes taken directly from the ground into the house. Therefore, we must recognise that with the industry come all the dangers of the length of the food processing chain. We talk about people wanting to eat local food and food from Ireland, which is good, but we must remember that many of our ingredients come from all over the world.

We must recognise that the food safety area is now an industry in itself. While I commend the Minister of State's comments on encouraging people who do not have high points in their leaving certificate to come into the industry at the agricultural level, we should also support involvement in the food safety industry. We should work towards encouraging people towards jobs in what is a technical and difficult sector to get right.

I would like to draw attention to a story or problem that unfolded over four years in Europe as a result of the importation of a product called "guar gum". This is not something one chews in order to feel better but is a common product used for thickening products such as ketchup and soup. In 2007 the Swiss authorities discovered that certain batches of the gum imported from India were completely contaminated with dioxins. They were very concerned by this because once the gum is added to the many different foods, it is very difficult to trace the source of the problem. They went to India and carried out investigations and discovered that the Indian authorities had already carried out an investigation which they could not stand over because it was such a poor one. The Swiss then insisted that any guar gum coming from the place in India would require papers which were signed off officially demonstrating the gum production was properly controlled. However, when they returned to India again in 2009, they discovered there were still serious deficiencies in the production of the gum.

While we rightly pride ourselves on traceability here, which is second to none, our dilemma arises with the challenge that faces us in the global world, where common products in our food, like guar gum, pose their own dilemmas. Therefore, we must recognise that the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has an enormous task, particularly when we consider the difficult issues it must face in terms of the safety of food. It must consider a diverse range of issues, such as whether food contains heavy metals, nutrient deficiencies, the occurrence of bacteria, the use of trans-fatty acids, monosodium glutamate, irradiated water use for washing vegetables, adding vitamins to milk and in what proportions and the age old issues of additives, thickeners and preservatives. If we are to invest in our agrifood business, which is what we want to do because it is an industry where jobs are being created, we must ensure the capacity of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland is maximised and that it does not lag behind. It must battle constantly to keep up with the challenges it faces as those in the technology field move ahead.

I remember being addressed in University College Cork by a colleague who had graduated some years previously. He was working in America and waxed lyrical about the wonders of strawberry milk and strawberry butter and milk that was not a dairy product. Back then - it was the last century - that seemed very strange to us, but the technology had already leapt ahead. My concern is that while we are busy investing in the food industry, we should not forget the importance of safety. We have already seen the problem here with dioxins in pork. Perhaps we need to invest more or perhaps the Department should liaise more with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, which is doing a very good job. People have come to rely on the authority.

The issue of food safety is a relatively new phenomenon and we used not have problems like guar gum or overheated breadcrumbs on a pork product that ended up poisoning people. We must not allow a gap to occur between the production of food - which we are very good at - and the safeguarding of that food.

I would also like to draw attention to the sticky issue of food labelling. I realise the issue is not quite as simple as putting a label on it and saying it is Irish because that is what people want. I understand there are difficulties at European level and that the whole area of labelling is complex. We know that the voluntary task force in the UK put together the pig labelling system - I have no doubt that the Minister of State is perfectly aware of this. They decided in the absence of an European ruling on the source of products that they would go ahead and put a voluntary code in place and encourage all the producers and retailers to come together to work on the system. I know the IFA has been pressing for this here. I ask the Minister of State to yet again, I am sure he has had dialogue with the IFA, open that dialogue or to give us an update as to where the proposed system is at. We are waiting for the European Union to catch up and whether we get mandatory labelling for country of origin remains to be seen. There is clearly an argument as to whether we are allowed to say where products come from, whether the UK, Ireland or France because of the rules of competition. I appreciate that this a difficult area. As Senator Michael Comiskey has said substantive transformation is causing headache not just to producers but to consumers also. It is vitally important that we address this in the coming years.

May I draw attention to a successful campaign on food labelling that has been announced today in Europe relating to palm oil. This again underlines the variety of ways that food labelling can operate. It can operate for nutritional or for safety reasons, as well as for country of origin. Those who were following the palm oil debate are aware of the environmental damage that has been caused by the proliferation of palm oil. It is a major environmental issue. Today the European Parliament has finally decided that it is obligatory to label palm oil as 'palm oil' and not under the guise of vegetable oil. Consumers will now be able to see for themselves that the product has palm oil in it and if they then do not wish to buy it, they have the knowledge which gives them some control. We should consider the value of labelling together with the value of food safety. I urge that we grow an industry around food labelling and safety and create more jobs from it as a good companion to the wonderful work that farmers are already doing.