asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food in respect of the current sampling/examination of beef by his Department: (i) if samples of the cut plate and flank have been taken from all the various parties from whom samples have been taken to date, (ii) if samples of the cut plate and flank have not been taken in all cases, the reason there has not been a common equitable approach to the taking of samples, (iii) if, in any case where samples of the cut plate and flankhave not been taken from parties from whom samples of other cuts have been taken, he will arrange to have samples of plate and flanktaken and examined on a similar basis to that in other cases, (iv) the quantity of the cut plate and flankproduced under the EC aids to private storage scheme operated by his Department, currently held within the country by any party who, although included in the sampling arrangements to date, has not had samples of this cut taken, (v) in the event of the reply to (iv) above being a quantity which could not be considered representative, if he will dispatch officers from his Department to cold stores in the countries to which the beef was consigned in order to carry out an examination on similar lines to that currently being undertaken in Ireland, (vi) if he has satisfied himself that his Department can account for the entire production of the cut plate and flank produced by any party from whom samples of this cut have not been taken but from whom samples of other cuts have been taken; and if he will ensure that no steps are taken which would have the effect of making such beef unavailable for sampling, and (vii) the date(s) of the most recent exports of the cut plate and flank by any party from whom samples of this cut have not been taken but from whom samples of other cuts have been taken; and the date on which the initial samples of any cuts were taken.
Written Answers. - Beef Sampling.
19.
Full details of the sampling by my Department of beef from stocks held under the 1988 aids for private storage scheme were given in my reply to a number of parliamentary questions on the subject on 26 April 1989. As indicated in that reply, the seven companies from which samples were taken account for 95 per cent of the beef stored under the 1988 aids for private storage scheme. Samplies of the cut plate and flank have been taken from each of the seven companies concerned. My Department, in co-operation with the customs, are continuing to take samples for examination from the 1988 aids for private storage stocks.
The procedures adopted in the taking of samples were applied uniformly in every case.