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Consultative Council Meeting - 9th December 2021

Members Present

  • Ray Bowe, Musgraves
  • Alice McGlynn, Bord Bia 
  • Paula Barry Walsh, DAFM (retired)* 
  • Conor Mulvihill, DII 
  • Cormac Healy, MII 
  • Sorcha Kavanagh, Conscious Cup
  • Maree Gallagher, Food lawyer
  • James McCrudden, Country Markets
  • Annette McSweeney, TUD
  • Siobhan Murphy, HSE
  • Louise Reynolds, INDI
  • Martin Roper, Food Safety Consultant 
  • Regina Sexton, UCC
  • Jamie Knox, Britvic
  • Catherine Morrison, BIM
  • Patrick Farrell, ex IFA
  • Jonathan Griffith, IHTA
  • Caroline Keeling, Keelings

FSAI Staff Present

  • Pamela Byrne
  • Gail Carroll
  • Jane Ryder
  • Emma Reinhardt
  • Gerard Power

Apologies

  • Janis Morrissey, Irish Heart Foundation
  • Dermott Jewell, CAI
  • Tim O’Brien, Restaurateur
  • Marcella Rudden, LEO, Cavan

Introduction

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and provided a summary of the plans for today’s meeting.

Agree Minutes of Previous meeting (16 September 2021)

The minutes were agreed without amendment.

Actions:
• Post the agreed minutes to the FSAI website.

Matters Arising

There were no outstanding matters arising that were not agenda items.

Governance of the FSCC

Gail Carroll introduced this item. She elaborated on:

 

  • Why a governance framework is needed
  • Purpose of the Council - based on the FSAI Act, 1998 but also need to outline what the FSCC is trying to achieve, its objectives
  • The nature of the work – how this will be agreed with the Authority? Who does this? What are the criteria? What is the role of the Board and how the Council and Board will interact etc.?
  • The structure of the council – numbers and representation including measures towards inclusivity and gender balance.
  • Appointees – The process for appointment of Council members, ensuring openness and transparency on this, duration of appointment.
  • Roles/responsibilities – role of the council members (including Council Chair, vice-Chair) and the role the CEO/Authority/Board with respect to the Council.
  • Conflict of interest.
  • Confidentiality.
  • Code of conduct
  • Performance/evaluation – how the FSCC will evaluate its work against its role, effectiveness, skills.

 

GC explained that she is in discussions with the FSAI’s Director of Corporate Affairs on these issues and more information will be available in Q1 of 2022. GC invited comments from the members. Some of the comments included queries on how this matter will be progressed and a suggestion that a survey to members could be useful in evaluating effectiveness.

Actions/Agreed:
• Members were invited to advise Eileen Lippert/Gerard Power of any suggestions/comments they would like to make on this matter.
• EL will circulate Gail’s short presentation to the members.

FSAI Update

Gail Carroll elaborated on the document that was circulated to the members in advance of the meeting. She opened the floor to comments and suggestions and the members raised the following:

  • It would be useful to include year to date trends for food incidents
  • It would be useful to receive the update earlier in advance of the meeting.
  • Information about FSAI engagement at EU level and updates of the major issues discussed.
  • GC advised that Gerard Power will provide the secretariat services to the FSCC from 2022.

Actions/Agreed:

  • Members to advise Gerard Power what areas of interest about which they would like more information.
  • Gail Carroll will consider in more detail how to provide information about EU meetings. Due to the number of meetings and issues discussed, this could be very resource-heavy. Members suggested providing links to the EU meeting minutes to the members and they could then view the issues of relevance to them.
  • Linking in with the Irish chapter of Codex could be useful and GC will consider this idea also.
  • GC encouraged members to circulate FSAI publications amongst their colleagues and peers.

Update on Ray Bowe meeting with FSAI Board

Ray Bowe attended the November meeting of the FSAI Board. At this meeting he elaborated on:

  • The FSCC membership
  • Key topics discussed by the FSCC since 2017
  • FSCC open meetings in 2019 and 2021 and their themes
  • Key work plan topics for 2022
  • Next steps for the FSCC in 2022
  • Questions asked by the Board members

Review of FSCC Open Meeting, November 2021

Emma Reinhardt from FSAI gave an overview of the recent FSCC Open Meeting. In this presentation she:

  • Elaborated on how the FSAI Communications Team built an online audience
  • Provided information about the attendance
  • Outlined the sectors represented in the audience
  • Results of the polls completed by the audience members
  • Listed some of the topics for future Open Meetings suggested by the audience
  • Explained some the audience suggestions on how the FSAI could assist industry in adopting an appropriate food safety culture.

The Chair thanked Emma for her excellent presentation and opened the floor to questions, some of which included:
1. Will the next Open Meeting be physical, blended or virtual –
2. Would it be possible to get a breakdown of what small businesses were in attendance as smaller businesses need more assistance in this area than larger businesses?
3. FSAI needs to acknowledge the extra costs involved in this which in turn will lead to an increase in prices
Emma and Gail addressed all these comments and questions.

Actions:
• EL will circulate Emma’s presentation to the members.
• Topics for the next Open Meeting will be discussed at the next meeting of the FSCC.

How to Progress the FSCC Work Plan for 2022*

The Chair outlined the membership of the three sub-teams, the team leaders, responsibilities and time frames for completion. He also

  • FSAI team will support above Sub-Teams
  • Prepare for 2022 Open Meeting
  • Development and implementation of Governance Protocols
  • Define optimum sector representativeness of Council membership
  • Propose update to FSAI Board on FSCC 2022 outcome in Q4

Actions/Agreed:

  • The Food Safety Crises will be the agenda item at meeting on 10 March 2022 – Team leader is Paula Barry Walsh
  • Reusable and Safe Packaging will be the agenda item at meeting on 16 June 2022 – Team leader is Sorcha Kavanagh. One more volunteer required for this Sub-team.
  • Food Safety Training will be the agenda item at the meeting on 8 September 2022 – Team leader is Annette Sweeney. Maree Gallagher will join this Sub-team
  • The responsibilities of the Sub-teams are:
    • Manage agenda, speaker invitations, content
    • Meet / discuss the topic to identify areas of focus for the meeting
    • Identify potential presenters who have practical experience, qualifications on the subject / supported by FSAI where needed
    • Target to have minimum three/maximum four speakers
    • Presenters can be both domestic and/or international as facilitated by the virtual meeting format
    • Contact presenters with invitation/introduction to the role of the FSCC
    • Confirm attendance 3-4 weeks before the meeting
    • Pre-alignment of speakers’ content to enable continuity of the topic
    • Sub-Group Lead liaises with FSCC Chair as needed
     
  • The FSAI will support the Sub-teams

In addition to the work of the Sub-teams the FSCC will:

  • Prepare for 2022 Open Meeting
  • Develop and implement Governance Protocols
  • Define optimum sector representativeness of Council membership
  • Propose update to FSAI Board on FSCC 2022 outcome in Q4
  • The FSCC meeting agenda will continue include regular updates etc (30 mins)
  • The remainder of the meeting will be assigned to the topic (90 mins) but will be extended by 30 mins if required
  • Actions arising from the Q&A / Discussion of the topic will be recorded and reviewed at the following meeting
  • Meetings will revert to in-person format when Government guidelines permit
  • EL will circulate the Chair’s presentation which outlines all of this information to the members.
  • FSAI to assist in carrying out literature search for the Sub-teams.

Paula Barry Walsh thanked and agreed with the Chair on the above points and confirmed that she has already had brief communication with her team members. She elaborated on how she plans to proceed and requested assistance from FSAI in carrying out a literature review on the topic.

AOB

There was no other business.

Dates for Meetings in 2022

The dates for the FSCC meeting in 2022 are:

  • 10 March 2022 at 10:30 until 12:30
  • 16 June 2022 at 10:30 until 12:30
  • 8 September 2022 at 10:30 until 12:30
  • 10 November – Open meeting – time TBC

Actions:

  • Gerard Power will send meeting invitations to the members for 2022.
  • The Chair welcomed Gerard Power to the FSCC and thanked Eileen Lippert.