Vol. 467 No. 6
50 Mr. O'Malley asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the steps, if any, his Department took to prevent the import of meat and bone meal from Britain to this country from the time it was declared unsafe as bovine animal feed in the late 1980s; and the Statutory Instruments introduced prohibiting its importation or use in this country as cattle feed. [13782/96]
In July 1988, shortly after information on BSE was first made public, my Department ceased issuing licences for the importation of meat and bone meal from the United Kingdom, thereby effectively banning such imports. Prior to that, a licence was required for the importation of such material under the Importation of Carcases and Animal Products (Prohib-ition) Order, 1966. This ban was reinforced on 28 March 1996 by the European Communities (Importation of Bovine Animals and Products obtained from Bovine Animals from the United Kingdom) Regulations, 1996. These regulations gave effect to the EU Commission decision banning imports from the UK of meat and meat products including mammalian derived meat and bone meal.
The feeding to ruminant animals of feedigstuff containing animal protein derived from ruminant animals has been banned with effect from 13 August 1990 under the Diseases of Animals (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) (Amendment) (No. 3) Order, 1990.
