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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 4 Jun 1980

Vol. 321 No. 10

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Control and Supervision of Slaughterhouses

20.

asked the Minister for Agriculture the number of officers employed by each local authority to inspect slaughtering premises selling meat to the home market; the basis on which such officers are appointed and paid; the method and responsibility for the supervision of their work; the cost of this service; the number of prosecutions initiated on foot of reports by these officers; the number of such officers who are part-time; the proportion of time required to be spent by such part-timers officers on their work; if they are required to visit all premises for which they are responsible at any given frequency; if such officers are allowed to accept business on a private basis from owners of premises which they are charged to inspect in their public capacity; and if he is satisfied with the standards maintained in all slaughtering premises.

The control, including licensing, and supervision of slaughterhouses catering for the domestic market are the responsibility of the local authorities for the areas in which they are located and these authorities employ the requisite staff for those purposes.

Inspections of these premises are carried out by local authority veterinary inspectors. One hundred and seventy-one veterinary inspectors, of which 148 are part-time officers, are employed by 33 local authorities for this work and for other public health duties at a total annual cost of about £500,000. With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to circulate with the Official Report a tabular statement giving the names of the local authorities and the number of veterinary inspectors employed by each of them.

The whole-time local authority veterinary inspectors are recruited through the Local Appointments Commission and they are paid on an incremental scale salary basis.

The part-time veterinary inspectors who are appointed by the local authorities, subject to the sanction of the Minister for Agriculture, are remunerated at flat rates calculated on the basis of a formula related to the size and population of their districts and the number of slaughterhouses and dairies to be supervised.

The standards maintained at slaughterhouses and the other matters raised by the Deputy are primarily matters for the local authorities.

Following is the statement:

Tabular Statement giving the Names of the Local Authorities and the Number of Veterinary Inspectors employed by each of them.

Local Authority—County Councilunless otherwise indicated

Part-time Vet Inspectors

Whole-time Vet Inspectors

Permanent

Temporary

Permanent

Temporary

Carlow

3

Cavan

4

Clare

7

1

Cork Corporation

3

Cork

12

7

2

Donegal

3

5

Dublin Corporation

9

Dublin

2

1

Dún Laoghaire Corporation

1

Galway

7

1

Galway Corporation

1

Kerry

6

1

Kildare

3

2

Kilkenny

5

1

Laois

3

Leitrim

1

1

Limerick Corporation

2

Limerick

4

4

Longford

1

1

Louth

4

Mayo

4

4

Meath

1

4

Monaghan

3

2

Offaly

4

Roscommon

3

Sligo

5

Tipperary (N.R.)

1

3

Tipperary (S.R.)

6

1

Waterford

4

1

Waterford Corporation

1

Westmeath

5

Wexford

3

3

Wicklow

4

1

Total

100

48

20

3

Would the Minister answer the part of the question to which he has not replied? Firstly, is it open to the part-time veterinary officers to accept business on a private basis from the owners of premises which they are required to inspect as part of their public duty?

Wholetime officers are not allowed to engage in private practice——

Not the part-time people, and the bulk of them are part-time. Would the Minister not agree that that is an unsatisfactory situation leading to a potential conflict of interest?

We can have a look at that matter.

It should be rather obvious that it is unsatisfactory. Would the Minister state if there is any requirement that given premises be inspected at any set degree of frequency or if it is possible for some of these officers to fail for years to inspect particular premises?

It is basically a matter for the local authority.

Would the Minister not agree that food quality is primarily a matter for him? We are concerned about imports of food. If the inspection of the quality of food being produced in these premises is left to part-time people, without any proper check or control on whether or not they do their job, is that not an unsatisfactory situation and one about which he, as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, should be concerned?

Question No. 21.

Would the Minister answer my question.

The Deputy made a long statement which could hardly be classified as a question.

Basically it is a matter for the local authorities and the health boards in the area. Health boards were specifically requested in June 1978 to comply with the requirements of these regulations. Sixteen points of structural and operational hygiene were listed for attention when a survey of all slaughterhouses was made and a planned programme of inspections introduced.

Would the Minister answer the last part of my question: if he is satisfied with the standards maintained in all slaughterhouses? Is he now satisfied?

Standards are being improved yearly. It is true to say that greater attention has been given since 1978 to the standards of slaughterhouses.

So the Minister is not satisfied?

Arising out of the survey to which the Minister of State referred which followed the June 1978 directive, can the Minister say what percentage of the slaughterhouses were found to be of an unsatisfactory standard?

I have not got that information.

Is the survey in the possession of the Department?

If the Deputy will put down a specific question I will give him an answer.

But the Minister does not know; that is what he is saying.

I have not got the information.

The jargon the Minister should be using is: I do not know. The Minister should stop the fancy work and just admit that he does not know.

I have not that information, Deputy.

That is another way of saying he does not know.

Questions Nos. 21 and 22 for written reply.

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