Avril Doyle
Ceist:1 Mrs. Doyle asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry whether our animal health status has been diminished since the Single European Act and the free movement of animals into Ireland.
Ceisteanna-Questions. Oral Answers. - Animal Health Status.
The country's animal health status has not been diminished since the advent of the internal market. However, the removal of systematic border inspections and the discontinuance of quarantine for imported farm animals means that there is greater exposure to disease risks. It is critical that importers and farmers exercise every possible vigilance in order to keep these risks to a minimum. My Department will continue to inspect and monitor imports to the maximum extent permissible under European Union rules.
Do we need tighter controls on the import of livestock than currently exist under the Single Market arrangements?
My Department is implementing the following measures. A high percentage of imported animals are examined by an official veterinarian. All imported bovine animals are assessed for the purpose of incorporation in the Department's disease eradication schemes and in order to be tested for selected diseases and warble fly treatment.
I am aware of the present arrangements. Do we need to tighten up the controls to ensure that we keep our present animal health status?
There is also a very heavy responsibility on importers to make every effort to ensure that the animals they are importing have been tested fully and have a satisfactory health status. My Department implements very extensive measures but I believe people in the trade have a responsibility also.
Is the Minister aware that in February the House of Commons agricultural committee instigated an inquiry into the health controls on the importation of live animals to the UK? It is in both our interests that the UK and Ireland stand together on this issue. I have serious concerns about the present importation of live animals since the Single Market took effect. Will the Minister consider tightening up the controls and joining with the UK authorities to ensure that we continue to enjoy our present high animal health status? Since the introduction of free movement of animals in and out of the country has the Department been notified of any outbreak of exotic diseases or an outbreak of a more virulent strain of an endogenous disease? Is the Minister aware of the serious veterinary concerns about this? Is the Department taking its responsibilities as seriously as it should to protect our animal health status on this island?
No exotic animal diseases such as foot and mouth disease or classical swine fever have come into the country. A couple of cases of Johnes disease have been found on imported cattle — but this disease was already in the country — as well as a few cases of warble fly infestation, which have been treated. It cannot be said that the animal health status here has deteriorated because of the Single Market. There have been a few reports of imported cattle being of poor quality and sickly, but these would be contractual issues between the purchaser and the vendor. Obviously, there is no connection between the Single Market and BSE, for instance.
By the large we are coping well since the operation of the Single Market, but I take the Deputy's point that we must at all times be hyper vigilant. However, let me stress that those who import animals have a great responsibility.
Given the concerns being expressed here and in the UK on the present regulations governing the free trade in animals since the Single Market, would the Minister agree to review this matter in the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry? I have serious concerns in this area. What concerns me about the present operation of the regulations is their potential to damage our animal health status. Will the Minister agree to a review of the operation of the present regulations? It is not only disease that is being imported, but as the Minister is probably aware — certainly the Department is — the number of culled heifers that have been imported and which have turned out to be free-martins. We need far greater scrutiny of how the system is operating.
Obviously, the procedures that obtain in the Department are under constant review but, on foot of the representations made here by Deputy Doyle, I will undertake to discuss this matter at senior level and make known her concerns to the senior officials involved.
Thank you.