WORKING LIFE: He started off writing scripts for Government ministers, then sketches for comedienne June Rodgers, but these days Martin Higgins is writing his own scripts.

Although he writes comedy in his spare time, Food Safety

Promotions Board chief Martin Higgins has a serious message for the people

of Ireland, writes Ella Shanahan

Our traditional diet is something we need to look at. . .

certainly there are challenges and our nutrition is going to be the biggest

public health challenge

'Creating awareness is one thing, changing

attitudes is another. Changing behaviour is the most difficult of all'

He is the interim chief executive of the Food Safety Promotions Board - still "interim" because, after more than two years running the show, he has to be confirmed formally by the North/South Ministerial Council. The suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive in spring 2000 and the situation in which Sinn Féin ministers were not allowed to attend North/ South Council meetings affected the board's operations in terms of getting permanent staff in place and delayed setting up the structures.

But this delay hasn't halted the work of the North/South board and he has high praise for the support he has had from the authorities on both sides of the Border.

The Food Safety Promotions Board is the body charged with promoting food safety and disseminating information on good health, communicating food safety alerts and overseeing a range of scientific research. It has no role in enforcement of legislation, unlike the organisation that spawned it, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

"The Food Safety Authority's role was refocused to ensure compliance with legislation and the development of standards that would help to inform on the rules, but its focus is on education. Our focus is on building information in relation to food safety and disseminating it to a wider audience.

"There is a continuum from chaos to commitment with compliance somewhere in the middle. The imposition of regulation achieves compliance but, particularly when it comes to consumers, you can't force them by regulation to comply. You have to build commitment, get people to do it of their own volition," he explains.

The Food Safety Promotions Board has a budget of €8.25 million (£6.5 million). Its headquarters are in Cork, with a sub-office in Dublin and an all-Ireland remit.

"Bugs don't respect any borders. There is a similar pattern of disease - Campylobacter represents the largest number of cases and it's the same north and south. Nutritional issues are the same. It was suggested we ban the Ulster fry - that might get us noticed. Or maybe the Irish breakfast, but it's a question of balance, of them being part of an overall healthy diet."

An accountant and former principal officer in the Department of Health, Mr Higgins was one of the civil servants who worked on the legislation and structures of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) and then joined the authority as director of corporate services in 1998.

"I found it fascinating. It was such an interesting area. Food is something nobody is indifferent to."

Ireland, north and south, was to the forefront in Europe in putting independent food safety regulatory bodies in place following BSE and other food scares. In one of his delightful turns of phrase, he says of Dr Patrick Wall, FSAI chief executive with whom he has worked closely: "Patrick Wall has done for food safety what Michael Flatley has done for Irish dancing."

People ask him why he doesn't adopt a similar, out-front approach, he says. But he insists: "I am the John Rocha. I make the dress but it's only when you put it on Naomi Campbell that it looks good."

He believes the food safety message has got across pretty well to most sections of society. Nutrition now is the big challenge.

"Our traditional diet is something we need to look at, and the level of cardiovascular disease. Some of it could be genetic, some lifestyle, but certainly there are challenges and our nutrition is going to be the biggest public health challenge in the coming years.

"When you see a statistic that two-and-a-half times the number of people are obese now compared with 10 years ago, it's a frightening statistic. Nutrition should be a consideration for the social partners. The economic costs of obesity. . . absenteeism. . . there is a huge economic cost involved in a bad diet. Food safety is relatively easy. You can advertise but, for disadvantaged groups, advertising doesn't work. You have to get working in the community," he insists.

Mr Higgins is thinking in terms of the health action zones that were run on a pilot basis in Northern Ireland, where one urban and one rural community were studied. These turned up factors such as "food deserts", where older people without access to transport to larger supermarkets could not get foods they should eat in smaller, local shops. Or where young or single mothers were heavily reliant on expensive convenience food because they lacked the cooking skills of older people and, as a consequence, an innate knowledge of nutrition.

An important development for young people is the introduction of the certified food-handlers course as a transition year programme in second-level schools in the Republic. Mr Higgins is looking at ways of introducing a similar programme in Northern Ireland but there is no transition year there.

The group with least awareness of nutrition is young males, living alone. Mr Higgins is conscious that he cannot go around dictating to people, rather that he must persuade.

"We have to tread the tightrope of giving good, sound advice without appearing to be the nanny state. You're trying to get people to change their behaviour but not in a nannyish sort of way. Creating awareness is one thing, changing attitudes is another. Changing behaviour is the most difficult of all."

He says the whole area of promoting food safety and good health involves being diplomatic, which he certainly is. He recalls being at a conference dealing with the issue of mobile phone masts. One woman was campaigning vigorously against the masts, yet when he met her outside she was smoking a cigarette.

When he pointed out the contradiction as far as health issues were concerned, she said simply that that was her choice. "It comes back to this thing of people being very risk-averse where they see the risk being imposed on them," he says.

Because of the Food Safety Promotions Board's bilocation, there is a lot of travel and Mr Higgins spends two to three days a week in Cork and the remainder in Dublin, with frequent visits to Northern Ireland.

For relaxation, he writes comedy scripts. "June Rodgers is a friend of mine for many years. I used to write for her as an amateur and now write all her material. I also co-write the Gaiety panto because she is involved there. It's a great way of switching off."

Inspiration often comes from observing children and teenagers, including, he confesses, his own. "One day they are 12 and angelic, the next they are 13 and don't want to know you."

Entertainment is in the Higgins family, a family that worked for generations in shipbuilding in Dublin. His father Paddy, at 73, is a semi-professional musician.

His wife, Mary, and their children, Ciara (16), Niamh (15) and Caitriona (11) are all involved in local theatrical groups in Maynooth.

And the plug - their panto, Robin Hood, opens in the Aula Maxima in St Patrick's College tomorrow night.

Another interest is on-beach fishing, which he says he gets to do about three times a year.

"It's very therapeutic because you don't have to do any work, like fly-fishing. You throw a pound of lead and a maggot into the Irish Sea. I am the most inept fisherman; the stocks of fish in the Irish Sea are under no threat from me."

He reads a lot and, surprise, surprise, the book on the go at present is Billy Connolly's biography, which he wishes Billy Connolly himself had written, rather than his wife Pamela Stephenson.