THE DISTRIBUTION of some 53 tonnes of free cheese to the poor, announced earlier this month by Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith, began yesterday.
More than €750,000 in EU funding will be spent on the charity cheese scheme between now and Christmas.
Some 330 charities have signed up to help distribute the cheese, which is being purchased from the Irish Dairy Board following a tender scheme. The charities will be able to collect the cheese in boxes of 12kg blocks from stores in Clondalkin, Dublin; Portlaoise; Kilmacthomas, Waterford; Cobh and Togher, Co Cork, with a minimum of one box per collection.
Fine Gael’s agriculture spokesman Andrew Doyle reacted with scepticism to the announcement of the scheme, which is already available year-round.
“Fianna Fáil and the Greens gouda be kidding,” he said. “People on the breadline would rather the Government’s unfeta’d attention was on solving the economic crisis they caused and providing jobs rather than on this ridiculous announcement.”
Mr Smith has said the comments demonstrated “a complete lack of empathy with and sensitivity to those who have benefited in the past and will again this year from this EU-funded scheme”.
Some 350 tonnes of butter were allocated this year by the European Commission, but it was swapped for 315 tonnes of cheese. The 53 tonnes of cheese made available from this month brings the total to 167 tonnes which will be handed out this year.
