Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 165: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of meetings of the Food Agency Co-Operation Council in 2004; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26216/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Food Agency Co-operation Council has met on 20 occasions since its inception in 2000. The council did not meet in 2004 as a number of factors contributed to the difficulties in rescheduling meetings that year.

The council has played a significant role in increasing co-operation between the State agencies involved in the food industry and has led to a number of memorandums of understandings being agreed between agencies. These are currently working well. The council was instrumental in drawing up an agreed human resource development programme for the food processing industry. The council has also produced a number of publications, among them Market Trends — Implications for Suppliers and State Agency Initiatives, a national food incident management plan and a market-led new product development guide, which provides guidance to food and drink companies on new product development best practice and which has been promulgated to county enterprise boards.

During 2004, the food development agencies directly concerned with the food programme components of the National Development Plan 2000-2006 met twice with my Department to assess progress on the plan in preparation for meetings of the monitoring committee for the programmes concerned. One such meeting has been held to date in 2005. In the light of the more market orientated CAP framework, the 2015 agri-vision report and the enterprise strategy report, my Department is considering the manner in which the various food agencies can most effectively co-operate to develop the agri-food industry. The role and format of the Food Agency Co-Operation Council is being examined in this context.