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Good Food Ireland was launched by Mr John O'Donoghue, T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism at the Good Food Ireland Awards Ceremony held in Cruzzo Restaurant, Malahide, Dublin on Monday, 13th November 2006.

Speech given by Mr John O'Donoghue, T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism

"Winners of the Good Food Ireland awards, ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted to be present for this happy occasion, which rewards excellence in the business of visitor accommodation and restaurants and highlights the quality of Irish food and cuisine.

Good Food Ireland will give a strong message of excellence which will go out far and wide. That message will be officially delivered in a few minutes when I unveil and launch the new identity for Good Food Ireland. There are 18 awards in total, including four regional awards sponsored by Tourism Ireland and covering the four super regions, which I introduced earlier this year in a drive to promote joint marketing of our many tourist attractions throughout the country.

I congratulate Margaret Jeffares for the pioneering work she has done and for the imagination and verve with which she has now evolved her vision to emphasise what is one of our great attractions, our fine Irish food. Today, in this splendid ambience of the Cruzzo Restaurant, in this village of Malahide, we welcome the emergence of Good Food Ireland.

I am confident that Good Food Ireland will be vigorous as a guiding beacon for all lovers of good food. Your members, some 170 of them, operate throughout the 32 counties of Ireland and are ideal focal points for visitors of all types who want to travel the road to good food.

Good Food Ireland brands its selected members as providing a good food product, whether they are a bed and breakfast offering the best kind of breakfast, a food shop or restaurant providing top class local artisan produce or a hotel that wants to be recognised for the high quality of the food it serves. Margaret and her team have raised the bar by bringing together these establishments, giving them the recognition they deserve and cooperatively marketing them under a unique identity. Nevertheless, each establishment retains its own individuality - an important selling point in an age when there is so much uniformity.

A record number of 6.8 million overseas visitors came to Ireland last year and this generated €4.3 billion in foreign exchange. I am pleased that official figures to date indicate that these results will be exceeded in the current year, with the latest CSO data showing an increase of almost 11% in the number of overseas visitors coming to Ireland during the first 8 months of the year, well ahead of the annual target of 5%.
We know that many of our visitors are attracted by the scenery, the culture, the history and the traditional warm welcome, but the statistics are showing that when they come to measure satisfaction with their Irish experience, food is to the forefront.

Good Food Ireland will become an important contributor to the success of our entire tourism and hospitality industry which now provides 246,000 full-time and part-time jobs. With a specific Irish identity, it is ideally positioned to deliver the proposition to both overseas visitors and the ever-growing number of our own people at home who are re-discovering what their country has to offer.

I congratulate not just the well-deserving winners of today's awards, but also each and every establishment nominated for an award. You have been judged by your customers to have gone not just the extra mile, but the extra two miles, and you are now, deservedly, also being recognised by your peers.
Well done".