Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the Smith family and compliment the Leader and Senator Seery Kearney. As someone who has a little angel of a sister whom I never actually had the pleasure of meeting, I was very moved by Senator Seery Kearney's contribution. Some 50 years later, I still try to live her life in my head and my imagination and to think about where she would be now and how things would have progressed. I compliment all of those involved.

I will raise an issue far removed from that emotion. As the Deputy Leader will be aware, I keep hammering the agricultural drum in here. The big debate in agriculture at the moment relates to sustainable food production, food security and how we are going to help the climate while still producing more food, which is what we need to do if we are to keep pace with a rising population. I read a small report on a recent survey regarding food waste carried out by Coyne Research on behalf of Aldi. Approximately 800,000 tonnes of food is wasted across the world every year. That is 25% of all food produced.That means the fertiliser, gas, fuel, work, labour and everything that goes into producing that food is also wasted and dumped, not to mention the major problem we then have of disposing of that food. Some 47% of the people surveyed said they throw away edible food every week while 65% said they were uncomfortable about doing so but still do it. Some 35% said they threw out food because it had reached or passed its best before date, which is a fallacy. Food on or after its best before date is still quite edible and there is nothing wrong with it. The best before date is a guide.

We need a debate to start highlighting this issue. I do not know which Minister the Acting Leader should ask to come to the Seanad. Education may be the route we need to go down in order to start to solve this problem and to create awareness of it. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is rolled out every time, but I do not know if it can control consumers, which is where waste actually occurs. I will leave it in the Acting Leader's capable hands but a debate in the Chamber would, if nothing else, start highlighting the importance of the issue, how much food could be saved and how big a help saving the 25% in food waste would be to the environment.