Willie Penrose
Ceist:73 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Health and Children the funding to date provided for research into the safety of GM foods; and the plans, if any, he has to carry out future research. [13864/00]
Written Answers. - Genetically Modified Organisms.
My Department has funded the establishment of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland which will have responsibility for the controls on genetically modified foods and food ingredients, including the assessments and approval for any new GM foods. The FSAI is developing a monitoring and surveillance programme for GM foods on the market in Ireland. We have made additional funding available to the FSAI for its GM programme this year and I have approved the recruitment of two new posts in the FSAI for this work.
The FSAI has a scientific committee for advising on food safety research issues and is presently advising the FSAI on priorities for food safety research. The Environmental Protection Agency is currently engaged in identifying and formulating a programme of research on issues related to the deliberate release of GMOs in response to the public consultation on GMOs and the environment. Significant funding has been made available by Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development to Teagasc to strengthen its research and development programme in the area of monitoring and evaluating products of biotechnology.
As the Deputy may be aware, an interdepartmental group on GMOs was established in March 1999 to coordinate the overall Government position on GMOs. This group is chaired by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and is comprised of senior officials from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, my Department, the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, the Department of the Environment and Local Government, the Department of Education and Science and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
The group is due to report in the coming months. I understand that this report will include a number of recommendations on future research on biotechnology and GMOs. I await the outcome of this report with interest.