Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 March 2005
161 Mr. Allen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if she proposes to change the legislation to allow the Food Safety Authority of Ireland to implement the name and shame policy for those whose premises it has found to be in breach of food safety legislation in the context of placing advertisements in the media informing the public of those outlets that are found to be in breach. [6818/05]
View answerThe Food Safety Authority of Ireland, (FSAI), operates a "name and shame" policy in accordance with the provisions of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act 1998. Under the Act the authority is empowered to issue three different types of enforcement orders for breaches of food safety legislation: improvement notices, closure orders, and prohibition orders. Food premises served with enforcements orders are published on the FSAI website (http://www.fsai.ie/enforcement/index.asp), which features all details including the premises name and address and displays this information for a period of three months after an order is served.
In addition, the authority endeavours to ensure that the enforcement orders receive maximum media exposure. It issues a press statement to all national media, and local media as appropriate, on the sixth day of every month detailing the enforcement orders that were served during the previous month. This serves to act as a warning, to those in the food industry not complying fully with food safety legislation, that breaches will not be tolerated.
