Vol. 535 No. 1
225 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the number of agricultural officers and veterinary personnel who have been engaged in duties at meat processing plants from 1 February 2001 to 19 April 2001; the precise duties of these personnel; the total financial expenditure by his Department for that period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11941/01]
There were 405 permanent officers in the agricultural officer grades and 86 permanent officers in the veterinary officer grades engaged by my Department on duties at meat processing plants from 1 February 2001 to 19 April 2001. My Department also engages approximately 700 part-time temporary veterinary Inspectors to augment the permanent veterinary staff at meat processing plants and ports. Part-time temporary veterinary inspectors are paid on a daily fee basis and are called on to carry out duties as and when required by the veterinary officers in charge. A number of these part-time temporary veterinary inspectors were engaged on part-time duties in the meat processing plants from 1 February 2001 to 19 April 2001.
The total financial expenditure for this period was £6.6 million approximately and comprised cost of salaries, daily fees for TVIs, overtime, gratuities and travel and subsistence. Slaughterhouses and meat processing plants are supervised by my Department's veterinary inspectors who are permanently located in all the larger meat and poultry slaughtering and processing plants and are responsible for the provision of the ante and post-mortem inspection service, certification of meat and meat products, inspections of structural and operational hygiene standards and controls on animal welfare, animal identification and residues. Other plants are visited and inspected regularly for compliance with health and hygiene regulations.
Technical agricultural officers are employed by my Department to assist the official veterinarian in the general inspection and supervision of the establishments and in the maintenance of recording systems. Veterinary and technical agricultural officer staff are also assigned to duties in connection with the various EU market support measures including intervention, aids to private storage, export refunds and the purchase for destruction scheme.
The outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in the United Kingdom and the subsequent outbreaks in Northern Ireland and the Republic have led to additional duties for inspection staff at the meat plants for which my Department is responsible, including operation of the system of movement permits for slaughter animals, supervision of disinfection of vehicles, enhanced lairage checks, preparation of supplementary foot and mouth disease certification for meat, meat products and byproducts, and enhanced checking of imported products.
