Congratulations to Deirdre Collins of Dee’s Veg-e-Que who secured an investment on Dragon’s Den, which was shown last Thursday night on RTE television. After her flawless presentation, and successfully fielding all their questions, Deirdre was spoiled for choice as 4 of the Dragons vied with each other to claim a stake in her business.

Deirdre Collins of Dee’s Veg-e-que will appear on tonight’s edition of Dragon’s Den. Deirdre makes delicious wholefood burgers from her production unit in Ballincollig, Cork. She has 2 skus and both are free of meat, wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, salt and sugar.

Yesterday, the first Food and Drink Council Meeting of 2010 took place in Teagasc, Ashtown. The event was an overwhelming success.  There were five new attendees at the meeting including Con Healy of Healys Honey in Ballincollig, County Cork ; Gareth Coleman of Glenstal Foods in Limerick; Celine Hayes English of Couverture in Dublin 12; Helen Gee of G's Gourmet Jams in Abbeyleix, County Laois and Tony Bateman of Petmaster in Dublin 12.  In addition, Brian Poland of Olhausens attended for the first time.