Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes, to the House on his inaugural visit. I thank Senator Feargal Quinn for his hard work in putting together the legislation he has presented to the House today. I disagree with Senator Martin Comiskey's argument that as member states operating in the Single Market we should follow Europe's lead in this matter. I am delighted Senator Quinn has taken the initiative and hope he can continue a journey which would see Ireland showing the way for others to follow. We are in a unique position as a small country on the edge of Europe, the only country in the world which shows up almost entirely green on satellite pictures. Our abundance of rain produces the lush grass which helps us to produce the best milk and beef in the world. In a context where the horsemeat scandal was discovered by the authorities in this country, why should we not seek to be leaders in formulating law in this area? I warn Senator Quinn at the outset, however, that while warmly welcoming his Bill, as a food manufacturer, I have many questions to ask and several amendments to propose.

Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill pointed out that the export of beef is our greatest success story and represents our largest manufacturing sector. Another major success of ours is the export of milk powder, mainly to China. Back in 2008, melamine was discovered in infant formula in that country, a nasty chemical which is added to watered down milk to bring up the protein level. Having been detected in dog food four years earlier in the United States, and having caused a number of canine deaths there due to kidney failure, the Chinese got a battering from which they have yet to recover. As a manufacturer, some of the great success I have enjoyed in countries like Australia, New Zealand and the United States is because, in the wake of that scare, people there do not trust Chinese chocolate manufacturers. Thankfully, the Irish beef sector seems largely to have recovered from the horsemeat controversy. Consumers are doing fine and are mostly back in the butcher's shop. When one considers what happened in China, however, the timeliness of Senator Quinn's Bill is clear.

Will the Senator define what is encompassed in the references in the Bill to "place of manufacture"? This is an issue I grapple with all the time. Colleagues will probably know what I am talking about when I refer to a major company which used to manufacture many of our favourite brands, the delicious items one would have with a cup of tea. After the company was sold off, production moved to Poland, Portugal and elsewhere, yet its products still come under the Guaranteed Irish label. Some people might be buying them under false assumptions. There are manufacturers masking the reality of their so-called Irish status. Foe instance, I could buy blueberries in France and have a factory there coat them in chocolate and package them. Once I bring them home, however, I could decide to repackage them in O'Brien's Berries boxes and put them on the market. Can such a product be said to have been manufactured in Ireland simply because it is repackaged here? We must have a precise definition in this regard.

I have some concern about people being put out of business. Many of the food manufacturers I know would operate on the basis of 50% branded products and 50% private label. A friend of mine who works in Marks and Spencer advised me last year to purchase its own brand make-up because, she told me, it is made by the same companies that manufacture the very expensive make-up one would find in Brown Thomas or Harrods. The only difference is that it is half the price in Marks and Spencer.

The situation is the same for various biscuits and crisps and many other famous brands. People put significant money into their private brands, but they must do private label work with the likes of Sainsbury's and Asda, or Woolworths, which is the Tesco of Australia. However, they never want to compromise their brand. Therefore, requiring the place or factory of manufacture to be on the label could cause some challenges for the commerciality of a business.

I love the idea of including the top three ingredients. However, taking my brand as an example, in an assorted box of chocolates I have milk chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate. Under new EU legislation it is not good enough for me to put on the label that the box contains milk, dark and white chocolate. I need to break down the dark chocolate into cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, emulsifier, soy lecithin, natural vanilla flavouring and so on. The sugar in the dark chocolate is possibly from a different country than the sugar in the milk chocolate, but is of a similar level. The requirements for labelling are quite onerous and complicated, and when I brought them to my technicians they said, "Oh my gosh, what a lot more work for our suppliers and ourselves." They would welcome that because they love being audited and ensuring our product is safe. However, the requirements are quite complex.

I believe the Senator's Bill is very timely in its application to chicken, fish, meat and perishable foods such as dairy food. However, I am not quite so sure it is right for prepacked food such as my product. I do not mean to focus on mine, but it would be simpler to attack the problem for products such as fish and chicken. I feel strongly about these two items. I and most consumers want to know where they is from. Even if it comes down to a question of cost, I still want to know that what I am buying is not from Thailand and I want to know whether it has been frozen and where it came from. There is a huge need for that information. On the issue of the top three ingredients, I am also very interested in knowing - for example, with Tesco burgers - what fillers are put into a product to make it so cheap. I have concerns in that regard. Sometimes it is the additives the consumer wants to know more about.

I was very glad to see the Senator mentioned beverages and alcoholic drinks. I love a glass of wine or a vodka now and again, but I often wonder what is in those drinks. I would love to be in the drinks business because one does not have to put detailed labelling on anything. Does the Minister of State ever think about the fact that one is not required to say what is a drink? I do not want to bore the other Senators as I often do, but I want to refer to a speech I made long ago in the Seanad. I pointed out to the Minister of State in the House then that EU regulations allow for 50 or more flavourings, additives and preservatives to be added to wine, but none of them needs to be listed. One of those additives, isinglass, comes from the bladder of a fish. That goes into both white and red wine. Perhaps when the Minister of State is having a glass of wine at the weekend, he will remember he may be imbibing some part of the bladder of a fish. Other ingredients in wine include copper sulfate, diammonium phosphate and thiamine hydrochloride. We need to know what additives are in our alcoholic beverages. We know we have obesity problems, so we also need to know how many calories are in a glass or bottle of wine. Is the Minister of State a coeliac? If one is a coeliac, one needs to know which drinks contain gluten. I know I may be contradicting myself in regard to requiring more detailed labelling for alcohol, as I said I would prefer to concentrate on labelling for chicken, meat and fish. However, let us be the first country in Europe to talk to the Union and to Brussels about proper labelling for alcoholic drinks.

We want to restore confidence and trust among consumers in Ireland Inc. Nobody loves the goal of Harvest 2020 more than I do. I urge the Minister of State not to return this issue to the shelf in the Department. This brilliant man, Senator Quinn, has gone to a lot of trouble and has done extraordinary work to get this Bill together. Let us go and present it to Europe and say we are ready for this. I would love this Bill to be taken to another stage because I have so much more to say and would love us to drill down on the issues and get the Bill absolutely right so that we can take it to Europe. Let us be the best in the class. We produce the best beef, the best milk powder and the best chocolates.