Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 November 2020
62. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if further action will be taken against the producers of a product (details supplied) which his Department removed from the biocidal product register due to possible public health concerns. [33420/20]
View answerBiocidal products, including hand sanitisers, may only be marketed and used in Ireland once they are registered with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and are entered on the "Biocidal Product Register" in accordance with Regulation 20 of Statutory Instrument 427 of 2013.
The hand sanitiser Virapro was approved by our Biocides Unit and registered on the 21st April 2020 on the basis of the documentary application, including a technical specification that it contained 70% ethanol which is a common standard for hand sanitiser products and fully complies with regulations.
OLAF the European Anti-Fraud Office notified the Revenue Commissioners regarding the import of a hand sanitiser product from Turkey to Ireland from the same supplier of a product that had been tested in Denmark and found to contain excessive levels of methanol. The Revenue Commissioners notified the Department of this information on 25th September 2020 and arrangements were made to test the consignment and a number of other consignments that had already been imported into Ireland from the same supplier. All consignments that were tested were quarantined pending the results of laboratory analysis.
Validated laboratory analysis results were available on 16th October 2020.
These results showed that the products did not meet the standards for approval, particularly with regard to the presence of methanol.
The company was immediately instructed to retain all product in its possession and recall all remaining product under the Virapro name from the market or in use by the public.
On the 20th October Virapro hand sanitiser was removed from the Department's Biocides Register.
My Department is liaising with OLAF and the Revenue Commissioners in relation to the origin of this product. Investigations are therefore ongoing in this matter.
Meanwhile the Department is continuing to increase its testing of other sanitiser product on the market to provide reassurance in relation to compliance with approved product specifications.
Test results available so far indicate no issues with other sanitiser products sampled.
