Minister questioned over plans for Irish language food labels
In a series of parliamentary questions this month (July 2025), Deputy Boyd Barrett claimed the minister was deflecting responsibility for bilngual food and drink labelling to the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht.
He believes that minister should use her department's legislative authority over the Food Information to Consumers (FIC) Regulation to act, and asked if she accepts that "this amounts to a deliberate political evasion" of the state's obligations under the constitution.
The minister for health acknowledged that her department has responsibility for food safety legislation, including an EU regulation on the provision of food information to consumers.
She outlined that that this regulation provides that mandatory food information shall appear in a language "easily understood" by consumers, and that EU member states may require that the information be given in one or more languages from among the official languages of the EU.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said that when transposing the language requirements of the EU regulation, and in light of the Official Languages Act 2003, flexibility was provided to ensure that food placed on the market in Ireland can be accompanied by mandatory food information in either English, or Irish and English.
She said: "Flexibility was necessary to ensure that the legislation was not creating barriers to trade and that the burden placed on businesses, including micro, small and medium enterprises was not disproportionate.
"The 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010–2030, for which the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht has responsibility, includes a commitment for government to examine the feasibility of introducing a voluntary code for bilingual labelling and packaging of all goods sold in Ireland."
"The flexibilities provided for in (the regulation) ensure that any such voluntary code, as it would relate to food information, will not contravene the mandatory information requirements of the EU FIC Regulation," the minister added.
Minister Carroll MacNeill said that the Department of Health "will be happy to assist" the Department of Rural and Community Affairs and the Gaeltacht in progressing the code.
In 2022, an FIC interdepartmental group was established in direct response to the EU Commission's 2020 proposal to amend certain aspects of the FIC regulation, which did not include language provisions.
Minister Carroll MacNeill has responsibility for the FIC regulation, and says that she currently has no plans to convene a group to examine the language provisions of the regulation.
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