Vol. 529 No. 1
341 Ms Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the action he will take in view of the finding by the Food Safety Authority that one in five of abattoirs which are under the control of local authorities failed a Food Safety Authority check to ensure BSE risk material had been removed fully from meat carcasses. [2335/01]
Responsibility for supervision of day to day operations at domestic abattoirs rests with the appropriate local authority working under service contract to the FSAI. Consequently, it is primarily a matter for each local authority concerned and for FSAI to address deficiencies identified by the FSAI in respect of the abattoirs within its functional area, in order to meet its contractual obligations to the authority. It is also worth emphasising that primary responsibility for ensuring the safety of any food product, including beef, lies unambiguously with the individual who puts it on the market. In this specific instance, the FSAI took appropriate action in respect of the breaches detected at individual abattoir level during the SRM audit and subsequently directed the local authority controlled abattoirs not to engage in the slaughter of animals over 30 months of age.
On a broader level, my Department is committed to ensuring that the highest standards of control are maintained in all areas of the beef industry. As far as domestic abattoirs are concerned, my Department has since 1997 provided financial assistance to local authorities to enable them to make good certain shortcomings which had been identified in 1996 in the discharge by them of their statutory responsibilities for meat inspection and certification at domestic abattoirs. The provision by my Department of such financial assistance has continued into the era of the service contract arrangements between individual local authorities and FSAI. In the context of these arrangements between each local authority and the FSAI, I sought and secured from Government a significant increase (from £1.5 million to £3.8 million) in the level of Exchequer assistance paid to the local authorities in this regard. Payment of funding by my Department in each individual case is contingent on the FSAI being satisfied that the local authority concerned has discharged its contractual obligations.
Along with other Departments, my Department will shortly participate in a review, which will consider the most appropriate location in the longer term of responsibility for legislation currently assigned to local authorities which requires the services of a professional veterinarian. My Department has already been in contact with the relevant Departments with a view to commencing this review.
