Readers of these digital pages will be well aware of the irregular ways in which the State wastes taxpayer money, but so many of the regular ways in which it does so are often overlooked. One such moneysink hiding in plain sight was made known to me this week, which comes in the form of a 26 year old cross-border quango: Safefood.
Originally established as the ‘Food Safety Promotion Board’ in December 1999, Safefood is one of six North/South Implementation Bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement, and given effect by the British-Irish Agreement Act, 1999. The other five, for those who are curious, are: Waterways Ireland; InterTradeIreland; Special EU Programmes Body; The Language Body (made up of two agencies, Foras na Gaeilge and the Ulster-Scots Agency); and the Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission (again, made up of two agencies, the Loughs Agency and the Lights Agency).
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