Matt Carthy
Question:106. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the roles undertaken by his departmental officials in meat plants during the Covid-19 period. [24008/20]
View answerTuesday, 15 September 2020
Questions (106)
Oral answers (6 contributions)
Earlier, I was tweeting that, bizarrely, we had not yet an opportunity to put questions to a senior Minister. Therefore, I very much welcome the fact that the Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is here and I take this opportunity to publicly congratulate the him on his recent appointment.
My question is to ask the Minister for an outline of the roles that have been undertaken by his departmental officials in meat plants during the Covid-19 period.
I congratulate Deputy Carthy on his appointment as the Sinn Féin spokesperson on agriculture, food and the marine and wish him well in that role. I look forward to working with the Deputy. It is good to be able to be here to take questions.
In the context of the Deputy's question on the Department's role in meat plants during the Covid-19 period, the Government categorised farming and food production as essential services under the Covid-19 regulations. As the Deputy will be aware, Irish meat plants and other food plants have continued to operate to ensure continuity and security of food to consumers at home and abroad during this time.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's statutory responsibility in the context of meat plants is to ensure that the Department approved plants operate in compliance with the EU's food hygiene legislation, animal health and animal welfare standards.
Within my Department, approximately 250 veterinary and technical staff are routinely involved in supervising, regulating and controlling the food safety, animal health and animal welfare standards at 49 slaughter plants and a large number of meat processing plants throughout the country. Department staff resources are supplemented by a group of approximately 700 temporary veterinary inspectors, who are private veterinary practitioners contracted by the Department to deliver ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection of animals and poultry in meat plants.
This work carried out by my staff in meat plants in relation to food hygiene, animal health and animal welfare has continued during the Covid-19 period.
In addition to this work, the Department staff in meat plants have assisted and supported the HSE and the food business operators at local level as required in relation to dealing with any outbreaks that have occurred in meat plants and in assisting with the logistics of organising and implementing Covid-19 testing in meat plants which is ongoing at present.
The Department staff have also supported and assisted the Health and Safety Authority, HSA, by carrying out Covid-19-related inspections in food plants in accordance with a memorandum of understanding signed between the Department and the HSA. All Department approved meat plants have had at least one such inspection, and inspections are ongoing. To date, the findings and feedback from my staff in respect of these inspections have, in general, indicated good compliance levels.
I thank the Minister for that response. To put on the record, I continue to support the idea that the food processing sector should have special status in the context of the restrictions that are in place. Of course, that sector needed to operate throughout the Covid-19 period. With that allowance, through even the deepest lockdown period comes a responsibility. The Minister would know of and, I think, at different points, would have shared in my critiques of the lack of transparency and apparent lack of accountability that was occurring within that sector. In many respects, it has been left up to the Minister's officials to be the eyes and ears of the public to ensure that our food is up to standard.
I will ask the Minister one question at this stage in relation to temporary veterinary inspectors, TVIs. The Minister will be aware of this letter that TVIs over 70 years of age have been asked to sign which, essentially, waives any health protections to which they might be entitled. I wonder if the Minister could tell me how many TVIs have signed this letter since the Covid period began.
I do not have that figure to hand. This matter was not alluded to in the Deputy's question. However, I take this opportunity to recognise the tremendous work that those departmental staff and everyone else working in meat factories have done during difficult period. As we have seen in terms of the numbers infected, they have continued to work at great risk to themselves. The Government, working with all agencies, takes its responsibility seriously. As Minister, I certainly take seriously the responsibility of ensuring that every safety protocol is properly followed in order to ensure that best practice is in place.
In the context of inspections, there were 26 HSA inspections in August, 25 of which were unannounced. It is important that this process of inspection continues. Of course, we see the serial testing continuing as well, at the best capacity that is allowed depending on the resource levels required within the community at the same time. That testing continued this week, and will be continuing tomorrow also.
The Minister will recall that, on Wednesday morning last, he indicated on RTÉ radio he that serial testing was continuing but it then transpired that the HSE had made a decision the day before that it should cease. I wonder if the Minister could indicate when he was informed that serial testing had been suspended and outline exactly how many factories will see serial testing being rolled out this week, particularly in light of the concerns that have been expressed and given that the Government acknowledges that this testing has had a role to play in tackling the Covid pandemic. As the Minister will be aware, there is a considerable amount of distrust within the communities about the information that comes directly from the meat factories and yet when it comes to the cases and instances of Covid-19, we depend entirely on the meat factories or media sources to get any information. The process has been slow. In fact, when Deputy McConalogue was on this side of the Chamber, he would have heard the then Ministers for Business, Enterprise and Innovation and Agriculture, Food and the Marine indicating that they could not even divulge the number of HSA tests being conducted because of confidentiality rules even though that information was released the following day. The Minister will understand why there is confusion and concern. I hope he will be the Minister to put an end to that.
As Minister, I take my responsibility very seriously, as the Department does, with regard to working with the HSE and with other agencies in terms of ensuring that the best practices are in place at meat factories and that serial testing takes place as quickly as possible. One of the first actions I took following my appointment as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine was to seek an immediate meeting with Meat Industry Ireland to ensure that co-ordination between the HSE, the Department and the meat industry was clear and that there was a clear timeline in relation to testing taking place. This is a matter of which I have kept abreast of every day since. I was interviewed on the Claire Byrne show on Wednesday morning last and gave the most up-to-date information I had at that point. The Department had been informed the night before by the HSE that testing had been temporarily postponed. I had not had a chance to be briefed that morning before the radio interview that the HSE had taken that decision. However, I have kept abreast of how that is progressing every day. I am doing everything possible within my Department to work with them to ensure that continues. The objective is to ensure, resources allowing, that serial testing will continue, that the first series will be finalised and that testing will continue to roll out on a fortnightly basis after that.
Question No. 107 replied to with Written Answers.