In the approach to Christmas, I draw the attention of the House to the fact that Ireland is the fifth worst offender in the world in terms of throwing out food. We throw out an average of 280 kg per person per year of food.

That might be the reason there are so many foxes running around.

We waste around €700 per person per year, which is an awful lot of money. The level of waste is even more concerning in the context of the number of people in the world who are starving. I wish to compliment the charity Bia Food Bank which was established in 2012 and is deserving of help. I saw a television programme last week presented by Philip Boucher-Hayes, who discussed the issue of food waste with shopkeepers and restaurant owners in Cork. It was very interesting to see how much food waste could be prevented through awareness and education. We have a duty to ensure that we help Bia Food Bank in its efforts to alleviate food poverty in Ireland. The charity is only serving a small area in Dublin at the moment but is planning to expand into areas in Cork and Galway in 2014 and in Donegal and Sligo in 2015. It will not be able to do this on its own and the Government has a duty to help it.

The EPA is running a Stop Food Waste campaign but we do not hear enough about it. I am simply trying to raise awareness of the issue in the run-up to Christmas. I am asking people to think about food and about preventing food waste. Last week one of the Sunday newspapers published a graph showing average consumer expenditure at Christmas and Irish consumers were way off the scale in comparison with our European neighbours. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on the subject of waste prevention in the new year.