Vol. 493 No. 5
128 Ms F. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the situation regarding safety standards in the use of pesticides on Irish fruit and vegetables; and the plans, if any, he has to tackle this problem. [16662/98]
The European Community regulatory system for plant protection products, which in this country is operated by my Department's pesticide control service, restricts the application rates of pesticide products to the minimum effective dose rates. The regulatory system is designed to ensure a very high level of protection for man, animals and the environment. If plant protection products are used in accordance with the approved label instructions unacceptable residues will not occur in food produce, including fruit and vegetables, post harvest. The pesticide control service operates an enforcement programme to ensure that the pesticides being placed on the market are packaged and labelled correctly and the national pesticide monitoring and enforcement programme to ensure that pesticide residues in food do not exceed the maximum residue limits established in statutory regulations. In relation to the latter my Department published the 1997 annual report on pesticide residues in food last week, which indicated that results for Irish produce were very satisfactory.
