Vol. 507 No. 4
12 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the protection, if any, he has put in place to protect consumers from purchasing banned Belgium meat and other products; if he has satisfied himself that no products containing dioxins are available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15769/99]
In so far as my Department is concerned, a range of measures were adopted to protect consumers on foot of decisions taken at EU level in the context of the recent contamination of Belgian agricultural products with dioxins. In particular, the general authorisations arrangements for imports were replaced by a requirement to obtain specific import licences in advance, regulations were adopted to ban the import from Belgium of specific agricultural products, specified agricultural products imported from Belgium were traced and detained, and animals imported from Belgium in the relevant period were traced and detained.
The products involved include fresh poultry meat, pork and beef and products thereof, eggs and egg products, milk based products, rendered fats, processed animal proteins and raw material from cattle, and pigs or poultry for inclusion in animal feedstuffs unless they were accompanied by agreed certification.
The ban applied to animals or products therefrom which were reared in Belgium since 15 January 1999. It has been established that they were no imports of eggs, rendered fats, processed animal protein or compound feedstuffs from Belgium in the relevant period. The remaining products still on the market, and animals, have been detained to be destroyed or returned to Belgium if certification requirements agreed at EU level on 11 June 1999 cannot be met.
Regulations adopted by the Minister for Health and Children banned the sale of suspect produce while the Department of Health and Children issued various alerts through the food alert system to retailers and health boards on withdrawal and detention of potentially contaminated products from retail outlets.
In addition, my Department has carried out analysis of pork fat for PCB residues and has arranged for dioxin tests on samples of a range of products.
My Department has maintained close liaison with the EU Commission and with other Government Departments and agencies, in particular the Department of Health and Children and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, to continue to monitor the position.
I compliment the Minister of State on the important measures that have been taken. The Food Safety Authority is beginning to have great credibility. It is an important feature of Irish life to have an authority with such credibility and when it makes decisions arising from food scares people have confidence in it. I am impressed with the Food Safety's Authority's actions so far. Would the Minister of State agree?
I fully agree with the Deputy. I have great admiration for the Food Safety Authority's chief executive, Dr. Patrick Wall, and his staff. What the Deputy had to say is well noted. We can now work closely with this independent authority and we have seen the results of its quality food scheme. We now have the safest eggs in the world, and Dr. Wall has stood firmly over that.
