asked the Minister for Lands if he will immediately take action to prevent the dumping or relaying of contaminated oysters from polluted beds from other parts of the country on the natural oyster beds of Galway Bay, as the people of the locality want to uphold the purity and good name of those beds as they are the only pure beds in Europe where oysters can be taken and used immediately without going through purification tanks; if he is aware that the dumped contaminated oysters are sold after 14 days both at home and abroad as Galway Bay oysters, hence giving a bad name to the pure oyster beds at Inasee, Clarenbridge and Ballindereen; and if he will take steps to have this matter remedied.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Galway Oyster Beds: Dumping of Contaminated Oysters.
49.
I have no power to intervene in the manner suggested by the Deputy. Under the Food Hygiene Regulations, 1950, oysters from a place declared by the Minister for Health to be a controlled area may be sold for human consumption if they have been relaid during a continuous period of not less than ten days in clean water of a suitable salinity in a site approved by the local chief medical officer. These regulations are enforced by the health authority.
Who has power to prevent it?
I do not know that anybody has power. I do not know that there is any necessity for such a power. The chief medical officer is concerned in this matter on health grounds and there is nothing before me to indicate that the oysters relaid in Galway are inferior oysters or are any worse than the local product, once they have been laid there for the specified time.
Surely the Minister is aware that contaminated oysters are being laid there and are being sold after 10 days as Galway oysters? This is adversely affecting Inasee, Clarenbridge and Ballindereen which have the only pure oyster beds in Europe. Not another area in the country would submit to this.
I am afraid the Deputy's local pride is getting the better of him.
It is only now that I am getting in there. There was terrible neglect there before.
There is no foundation for the suggestion that the oysters brought in will contaminate the local bed just as there is no foundation for the allegation that the native Galway oyster is any bigger, better, or tastier than those brought in from the Kerry coast and replanted in Galway.
Is it not a fact that the oysters brought in are smaller?
I suppose everybody speaks from his own experience.
These are contaminated oysters. I suppose we will have to look after this in the election. We cannot allow it to continue.