THEY dubbed it cheesy
and insulting while in Opposition but now Fine Gael
thinks a scheme to give free cheddar to the poor is
just 'grate'.
A record 342 tonnes of cheese will be distributed in
Ireland over the next year under the EU’s food aid
programme for the Most Deprived Persons of the
Community (MDP).
This compares to the 167 tonnes sanctioned in 2010
by the FF/Green administration.
Nearly half of this year's allocation - or 116
tonnes of cheddar - has already been delivered to
cold storage depots for collection and distribution
by nearly 400 Irish charities.
Clearly, Fine Gael have become quite 'fondue' of the
scheme despite severe criticism of Fianna Fáil
Agriculture Minister, Brendan Smith, for trumpeting
it just hours after the announcement of the brutal
austerity budget in 2010.
"Is this guy for real? People on the breadline would
rather the Government's unfettered (unfeta’ed)
attention was on solving the economic crisis they
caused," Fine Gael’s agriculture spokesman, Andrew
Doyle T.D., said at the time.
However, Fine Gael continued the scheme after it was
elected to Government the following year. And,
Minister for Agriculture and Food, Simon Coveney,
thinks it’s gouda to do so again this year.
“Minister Coveney believes the current scheme is a
worthwhile one and is happy to continue to support
it considering the strong response from charities
and their continued satisfaction with it," said a
Department of Agriculture spokesman.
The EU first released community intervention food
stocks to the poor of the member states during the
particularly harsh winter of 1987. The budget for
the programme has increased since then from €100m to
€500m.
Statistics provided by the Department of Agriculture
show that 25 tonnes of free cheese were distributed
in Ireland under the scheme in 2008 rising to 53
tonnes the following year and 167 tonnes in 2010.
Almost 220 tonnes were distributed here last year
with a total of 342 tonnes to be distributed between
now and December 2013. A total of 389 charities have
been approved to distribute the free food which this
year also includes 132 tonnes of butter and 75
tonnes of rice. |
