Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 15: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps she intends to take to promote growth in the food industry on foot of the World Food Technology and Innovation Forum that was recently held here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37856/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Fourth Annual World Food Technology and Innovation Forum was held in Dublin by Access Events International in partnership with Enterprise Ireland on 9-10 November 2005. The event provided an excellent opportunity for food manufacturers to discuss the changing dynamics of the industry and to cover the themes of consumer trends and developments in new product development; approaches to innovation and well-being; nutrition and health labelling; trends in ingredients; and futuristic technologies such as nanotechnology and how these may be applied to the food industry, and progress in functional food research.

The topics echo the emphasis placed by the National Development Plan 2000-2006 on research and development as a key driver of economic development and growth and the allocation in the plan of €106 million to research, technology and development in the food sector alone. This comprises public good food research under FIRM, my Department's food institutional research measure, and grant assistance by Enterprise Ireland for commercial research in the food sector.

The main objectives of the food institutional research measure, FIRM, are to provide a base of information and expertise in generic technologies that supports innovation and product development in the food industry, and assists consumer protection by ensuring that product development is underpinned by attention to food safety and quality. Since 2000 calls for projects have issued on a range of themes: development of technologies to build a more competitive, innovative, consumer-focused and sustainable food production and marketing sector; development of the scientific knowledge to underpin effective food safety practices at all stages in the food chain; consumer foods technology; innovation in functional foods; cheese diversification; production of new food ingredients; nutrition; and new technologies for added-value meat products.

The emphasis placed on competitive excellence and co-operation between research institutions has greatly increased capacity and capability in third level food research in Ireland and has provided a cadre of highly skilled researchers as a resource for the food sector as well as generating new knowledge and technologies for the food industry.

The initiatives to encourage research and development, which have been implemented by Enterprise Ireland under the national development plan, include research and technology, research and development capability programmes and innovation partnerships with industry and academia. I was particularly pleased to see the interest shown by large dairy and meat companies in the past year in establishing their own research and development centres of excellence with the assistance of Enterprise Ireland.

The development of the functional foods industry has been identified as a national priority by the Government and is specifically mentioned in recommendations of the Agri 2010 and Agri-Vision 2015 committees and the Ahead of the Curve report of the enterprise strategy group. Functional foods are defined as those foods and beverages that provide a health benefit beyond basic nutrition, for example, probiotic yogurts for gut intestinal health and energy drinks for sports and general physical performance. It is one of the key areas identified in the Enterprise Ireland development strategy for the value-added food sector, which also includes market-led innovation, biotechnology and functional foods. This sector presents huge challenges and opportunities. Enterprise Ireland has constituted a national functional foods forum that will help formulate and drive the strategy for the sector. The forum enjoys participation from industry, the research-academic community and some industry representative groups as well as Bord Bia and my own Department.

Biotechnology also offers opportunities for new products and process technologies including the creation of a new generation high value food ingredients by extracting high value fractions from raw materials such as milk protein. This is an area also benefiting from State-funded research.

Market driven innovation is seen to be the key to success in the extremely competitive, rapidly changing, food sector and to positioning the food industry, and indeed other industry sectors, as stated in Ahead of the Curve. While innovation can profitably be applied to all aspects of a company's operations, particular emphasis needs to be placed on commercially exploitable research and development and new product development. I am committed to encouraging and promoting initiatives in this area.