Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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453. To ask the Minister for Health her views on the cross-Government working group that was established in 2022, under the aegis of her Department, to discuss EU regulation on the provision of food information to consumers; her views on the conclusions of this working group as they relate to Irish language packaging and food labelling in Ireland; if she will consider policy measures, up to and including legislation, to encourage businesses in Ireland to use bi-lingual packaging for their products as a way to promote and increase visibility of the Irish language; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23094/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Food labelling in the EU is governed by the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers.

The EU Commission had indicated its intention to revise the FIC Regulation in respect of the following:

Under the Farm to Fork Strategy, which is the agri-food component of the European Green Deal:

(1) Introduction of harmonised front-of-pack nutrition labelling;

(2) Setting of nutrient profiles to restrict use of health claims as a marketing tool for high fat, sugar and salt foods and restrict marketing of these foods to children;

(3) Expand the requirement for country of origin/provenance labelling;

(4) Revise the current date marking rules;

Under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan:

(5) Introduction of a requirement for an ingredients list and nutrition declaration on alcoholic beverages.

A Cross-Government Working Group was established by my Department in 2022 to develop Ireland’s position on the above elements to be revised under the FIC Regulation. The aims/ objectives of the Cross-Governmental Group were to discuss, develop and agree Ireland’s position on the Commissions’ proposed FIC revisions.

The Commission had committed to releasing a legislative proposal, including an impact assessment in late 2022 but these are still to be progressed. In 2024, Commissioner Várhelyi, current European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, referred to food labelling at his confirmation hearing and noted that a review of the many nutritional labelling schemes across the EU is warranted, especially given their impact on the Single Market.

When the legislative proposal and impact assessment are progressed by the Commission, my Department will reconvene the Cross-Government Working Group so that it can complete its deliberations.

Bilingual labelling is not part of the Cross-Government Working Group’s remit. However, it should be noted that in Ireland’s transposition of the FIC Regulation (Statutory Instrument 556/2014), there is an option to provide food information bilingually on a voluntary basis.