Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 January 2010
939 Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he has any plans to replace veterinary inspectors with trained auxiliary staff from his Department to carry out post mortems in meat plants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48617/09]
View answerSlaughterhouses and meat processing plants operating under the approval of my Department are supervised by veterinary inspectors employed by the Department, assisted in their duties by technical staff and by temporary veterinary inspectors (TVIs) drawn from private practice on a rota basis.
Recommendations arising from a Value for Money (VFM) review relating to the use of the services of TVIs in slaughter plants under the supervision of the Department, along with recommendations arising from other reviews relating to the optimum deployment of the national veterinary public health inspectorate, are being taken into account in revised arrangements for controlling meat plants to be developed in coming months. In this context the use of auxiliaries as recommended by the VFM review will be introduced in certain areas, initially on a pilot basis.
A number of issues remain to be addressed however before work currently undertaken by TVIs could be reassigned to auxiliaries on a general basis. The technical staff that are referred to by the Deputy, while trained to a level commensurate to carry out all the inspection tasks which they are currently performing, are not as yet fully trained to carry out post-mortem meat inspection except in relation to poultry meat. (The Department had already assigned some post mortem inspection duties to technical staff working in poultry processing establishments). In addition, such a reassignment would involve extensive consultation with the representatives of the technical staff concerned and the TVIs.
