Kathleen Lynch
Ceist:21 Kathleen Lynch asked the Minister for Health the steps, if any, taken by his Department to ensure full compliance with EU Council Directive 93/43/EEC on food hygiene; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8074/97]
Written Answers. - Food Hygiene Directive.
Limerick East): It is my intention that Ireland should comply fully with EU Council Directive 93/43/EEC on the hygiene of foodstuffs. Currently the statutory requirements in Ireland in relation to food hygiene and food premises are set out in Food Hygiene Regulations, 1950-1989, which consist of a number of statutory instruments. Work is at an advanced stage to revoke this entire existing code and to replace it with a single statutory instrument which will also transpose Directive 93/43/EEC. This has involved extensive consultation with both the food industry and the enforcement agencies and the preparation of a new set of regulations is at an advanced stage.
The Directive, when transposed, will be enforced by environmental health officers in the health boards. As the Deputy is aware, EHOs who are members of IMPACT are engaged in a limited form of industrial action which entails non-co-operation with the implementation of any legislation which has been enacted since 1981. Consequently to revoke and replace the current regulations while the dispute is in progress could result in a situation where no regulations were being enforced.
Pending its transposition into Irish law, my Department has been actively promoting the principles and practices contained in Directive 93/43/EEC. A central element of the directive is the promotion of the system of HACCP, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, whereby food business operators shall identify any step in their activities which is critical to ensuring food safety and ensure that adequate safety procedures are identified, implemented, maintained and reviewed.
Funding has been provided by my Department to health boards to enable enforcement officials undertake training in HACCP and almost all officials at local level have now been given formal training. The National Food Centre is providing training courses for industry to enable businesses to install HACCP systems. The National Hygiene Partnership, with which the Department of Health is associated, has developed a number of initiatives in food hygiene training for those employed in industry. The course which it offers is supported by my Department and is based around the Directive.
Directive 93/43/EEC also requires the member states to encourage the development of guides to good hygiene practice which may be used voluntarily by food businesses as a guide to compliance with the provisions of the directive. My Department has been very active in encouraging industry to become involved in the preparation of guides to good hygiene practice which are specific to different sectors of the food industry and has also sought the services of the National Standards Authority of Ireland. To date three guides have been completed and two more should be available in 1997. They are: National Standards Authority of Ireland Irish Standard I.S. 340: 1994-Hygiene in the Catering Sector, National Standards Authority of Ireland; Guide to Good Hygiene Practice for the Irish Beverage Industry, Irish Business and Employers Confederation, Confederation House, 84-86 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2; Guide to good hygiene practice for the food processing industry in accordance with the Council Directive 93/43/EEC on the Hygiene of Foodstuffs, National Standards Authority of Ireland, 1996; Guide to good hygiene practice in the Retail/Wholesale Sector, National Standards Authority of Ireland, for publication in 1997; and Hygiene for Food Producer Working on a Domestic Scale in or from their home, National Standards Authority of Ireland, for publication in 1997. Preparations have also been made to develop a guide for Irish County Markets, an organisation of about 75 weekly markets with a membership of 1,500 persons.
I would like to assure the House that any delay in fully implementing Directive 43/93/EEC will not leave the public at risk or allow food business unrestricted operation as the food hygiene regulations provide wide-ranging powers to enforcement agencies and their main provisions date from before 1981.