I should like to thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for allowing me to raise this matter which is of prime concern to the agricultural industry, to the bacon and pork industry and particularly for our export markets. I know this has caused devastation in the Ballybay area — I was in that general area last week — certainly to the 175 people who lost their jobs as well as the farmers who are owed in excess of £2 million for their pigs. The whole thing is a very sorry story.
However, it is incumbent on somebody like me to ensure that all the facts surrounding this problem are known. In the few minutes at my disposal I should like to ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food to inform the public how the IDA evaluated the Ballybay Meat Exports project for grant-aid purposes and to explain how such a project went into receivership so soon after the evaluation was carried out. I find it difficult to understand how only a year ago the IDA could see fit — and in my view rightly so — to grant-aid the company. In my view the factory was in the right place. How could an evaluation of that type go so terribly wrong? I should like to know if Ballybay Meat Exports Limited, or any other company involving the same directors, got aid from Fóir Teoranta before the new processing plant was built and if the IDA were in receipt of this information. It is very important that those points be clarified. Is it true that over £3 million of FEOGA grant-aid and IDA funds were involved and what opportunities or mechanisms are available to the IDA to recover taxpayers' money?
I understand from the media that the Minister initiated an investigation a few weeks ago. I should like to know the terms of reference of such an investigation and if the results will be made public. I should like to know who is being investigated and by whom. Is the investigation being carried out by the Department of Agriculture and Food, the Garda or the Fraud Squad? Is the Minister worried by the consistent newspaper reports about ongoing investigations by Danish and US police about the mislabelling of consignments of pork on the US markets? Such rumours are extremely dangerous and serious for Irish bacon and pork products on all our export markets. Have such investigations taken place in Ballybay Meat Exports Limited or, indeed, in any other Irish meat processing factory? If those reports are wrong it is incumbent on the Minister to say so immediately before we do serious harm to the export drive in the continental countries and particularly in America. It is time to cut this out if it is wrong; if it is right it is another story.
Newspaper reports indicate that the company in Ballybay had debts of £7 million. If these reports are true where did the money go? Will farmers who are owed £2 million receive preferential treatment? Was Ballybay Meat Exports Limited connected in any way with any London meat export company or trading house or have the Danish company who are involved with Ballybay Meat any business connections in London? Would the Minister agree that it is now past the time when all the matters relating to the above should be addressed in a full and frank public discussion and that the results should be made public immediately. Failure to do so would greatly affect the entire marketing of bacon and pork abroad and would devastate Ballybay and its hinterland and the 175 people who lost their jobs.
I urge the Minister to use his influence with the receiver to ensure that the plant will re-open as a bacon and pork processing factory and that the jobs will be protected. A pre-condition of opening must be to pay farmers for their stock.
This is a very serious matter and it behoves everybody involved to clarify immediately what exactly is going on. If the reports are incorrect then obviously this processing factory at Ballybay should not have closed. It has very serious ramifications across the entire industry. I am asking the Minister to clarify to the best of his ability the questions I have asked today.