This is all very worthwhile, but somehow you can't escape the impression of a sort of 'HardyBoys' atmosphere about the whole thing . . . earnest, selfimportant, and perhaps not altogether very worldly-wise. But still, mustn't grumble: this is just the sort of series that RTE usually gives to television, instead of radio, so we have to be glad of it.

The programme is broadcast on Monday evenings, but is flagged with its own segment on that morning's Today with Pat Kenny, which is where we get the substance of the story spoon-fed to us . . . spoon-fed, that is, as if we were mumbling, drooling mouthbreathers barely capable of comprehending a single strand of information, never mind two strands in conflict. The scene between Philip Boucher-Hayes and Pat Kenny is the scene where Hercule Poirot explains the whole thing to an assembly of slowwitted guests in the drawing room. Pat Kenny is the red-nosed colonel saying, "By Jove man, you can't expect us to believe that?", in the interests of elucidating the plot for the addled people staring emptily at the television in the hospital day room.

Last week's programme, 'Cancer Crop' was about the spraying of vegetables, particularly mushrooms, with carcinogenic chemicals, and the department of agriculture's apparently lax attitude towards testing the mushrooms . . . and other vegetables . . . for pesticide residues.

"Last year, Philip BoucherHayes's investigation highlighted how the department of agriculture was only testing 10 mushrooms a year for pesticide residues, " said Pat Kenny by way of introduction. Then: "One year on, Philip has been taking a look at just how rigorously the rest of usf are finding vegetables to be tested, " he continued hesitantly, perhaps realising that he should have put a stop to that sentence while there was still a chance.

"Well, Pat, " said PBH. "If you thought testing 10 mushrooms wasn't sufficient to the task, wait till you hear what myself and my colleague in the investigative unit, Cora Ennis, have unearthed now.

In 2005, [the department] tested a total of 10 parsnips, 10 heads of broccoli, six lemons, three cauliflowers, two brussels sprouts and one lonely old leek." (Maybe some department lab technician was nicking the ingredients for a hearty winter soup . . . such piddling, low-level corruption must be just as common in the public sector as it is everywhere else. ) Trevor Sargent, formerly a vociferous critic of food safety standards, was also interviewed, having been forced to eat crow since becoming the junior minister with responsibility for food safety. Sargent said Ireland was actually testing more vegetables "per head of population" than most other EU countries.

"A year ago, you were as concerned as we were that only 10 mushrooms were being tested, " said Boucher-Hayes. "You are happy now that it is sufficient?"

He didn't push this point, though.

Instead, he let Sargent off on his usual script about bicyclesf Well, alright, it wasn't bicycles this time, it was the importation of organic vegetables.

"Do you think Trevor Sargent has gone native?" asked Pat Kenny, with uncharacteristic pith.

Boucher-Hayes replied with this delicious piece of diplomacy: "He has a keener understanding of the viewpoint of the officials within the department than he had when he was in opposition."