Trinity College Dublin has announced that it has become a designated "Fairtrade campus".
The college says this means approximately half a million cups of coffee and tea consumed annually by students and staff at outlets controlled by the college will now carry the Fairtrade label, which guarantees fair prices to producers in the developing world.
According to Peter Gaynor, director of Fairtrade Ireland, the announcement by the university provides a "flagship location" in Dublin's city centre for the recently launched campaign to make Dublin the European Union's first Fairtrade capital. It is hoped that this will be possible within two years.
NUI Maynooth, Queen's University Belfast and Waterford Institute of Technology are among the colleges which have already been designated as Fairtrade, while supporters at other campuses, such as UCD and UCC, are also working towards this goal, he said.
"The criterion is that the universities convert to Fairtrade in all of the outlets they control," he said. "I think to get that kind of establishment [ Trinity] on board, which is an iconic establishment in the heart of the city, with so many people going through it, gives a fantastic example. It will further help to raise consciousness among consumers of the necessity to pay producers a fair price for their produce."
Since the start of the current academic term, restaurant and cafe outlets run by the catering services department at TCD have served only Fairtrade certified coffee and tea, the college said.
The coffee and tea will be supplied by the Java City Coffee Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bewley's.
Graham Daniels, director of accommodation and catering services at TCD, said the college had been selling Fairtrade coffee on the campus for some years.
"We have now fully extended this initiative campus-wide. Adding Fairtrade tea strengthens our commitment to this important agenda," Mr Daniels said.