asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will describe the procedure for checking vegetation entering this country, and the precautions taken to prevent the entry and spread of disease.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Checking of Imported Vegetation.
40.
Under the Destructive Insects and Pests (Consolidation) Act, 1958 and Orders made thereunder all imported vegetation entering this country must be accompanied by a certificate from the Phytosanitary Service of the exporting country to the effect that the produce has been thoroughly examined by an authorised officer and found to be substantially free from injurious diseases and pests and that the consignment conforms with this country's current phytosanitary regulations.
For certain countries an additional declaration is required to the effect that the consignment has been specially examined to ensure freedom from Colorado beetle, stem and bulb eelworm and potato root eelworm.
Where a consignment is not accompanied by the requisite phytosanitary certificate the produce may be either destroyed or returned to the country of origin.
Special inspection of the produce is also carried out by the technical officers of my Department if this course is considered necessary.
Is the Minister satisfied with the reliability of these certificates? Is he satisfied that we are not importing eelworm in such things as onion sets and bulbs?
I find that our technical people, on all these questions, are tremendously exacting. My experience is that they are so exacting that it would be difficult to expect to improve the standard of vigilance they show in regard to these matters.
I understood the Minister to say there was no examination at the point of entry here; that he accepted the certificate supplied by the exporting country?
There must be some element of trust in all these matters and the same applies in our own case on many occasions also.
Acknowledging the necessity for an element of trust, would the Minister not think it prudent from time to time to have spot checks with a view to confirming that the certificates we are receiving are uniformly dependable, if there are grounds, as it appears, for the fear that potato eelworm is coming in in such things as onion sets?
As I have already said, I regard the technical people in my Department who are responsible for this and other such matters as being tremendously exact. In fact sometimes one might think that they were even too much so. I do not see any objection to mentioning that fact to them but I have that belief, that they would probably lean the other way rather than be too liberal in their approach to such an important matter as this.