(Dublin West): I wish to share my time with Deputy Gormley.
Adjournment Debate. - Genetically Modified Foods.
That is agreed.
(Dublin West): A ruthless and powerful machine is relentlessly pushing the commercial propagation of genetically engineered crops and vegetables and doing everything to swamp food retail outlets with the resultant genetically modified foods. This machine includes multinational companies like Monsanto whose chemical defoliant, agent orange, laid waste to millions of acres of vegetation during the Vietnam War, the residue of which still causes Vietnamese babies to be born with horrible deformities. Genetically modified food pushers include the top echelons of the US Government. According to the US newspaper The Post Dispatch, during the Taoiseach's visit to the United States last St. Patrick's Day, the Director of the National Security Council, Sandy Berger, was more anxious to lobby the Taoiseach regarding EU clearance for Monsanto's GM corn to enter Europe, than to discuss the peace process in Northern Ireland. The lobby disgracefully includes the New Labour Government in Britain.
In the US this year tens of millions of acres of genetically engineered corn will be planted. The multinational companies behind this are taking a criminal risk with the world's eco-systems. They release into nature plants with artificially mutated genes whose long-term interaction with the environment is wholly unpredictable. The checks and balances of tens of thousands of years of natural evolution are ruthlessly ignored.
These companies seek to control the world food seed market so they can compel farmers to have exclusive contracts with them for their seeds. In the Third World they are even attempting to develop so-called terminator seeds that would ensure the rice harvest would be infertile and, therefore, would compel all farmers, including the poorest, to buy new seeds every year from the multinationals. They are using genetic engineering to trap farmers in commercial serfdom. These companies are a mortal threat to biodiversity and, therefore, to the security of the world's food supply.
The swamping of food outlets with genetically modified foodstuffs poses a major potential health hazard to humans. Research carried out by Dr. Arpad Pusztai at the Rowett Institute in Scotland is but the latest in a series of disturbing findings, yet the biotech food industry is flooding supermarkets and shops with products whose health effects could be proven in the future to be disastrous. They are conducting a giant experiment involving hundreds of millions of unwitting human guinea pigs, including five million Irish people.
A generation of workers were horribly maimed by lethal disease asbestosis before the effects of exposure to asbestos were ascertained. It took a catastrophe in Chernobyl to alert the world to the awful destructiveness of atomic fission, which was used for decades to generate electric power. The BSE crisis was not foreseen. Yet, multinational companies and Governments are ignoring the most basic precautionary principles and are pushing ahead with genetic engineering projects involving food, which in both environmental and human health terms, may well in the future put asbestosis, Chernobyl and BSE in the shade. It is alarming that most of the research into and testing of these products are conducted by the very companies who stand to gain massively.
This Government has gutlessly allowed genetically modified food products to be widely dispersed in retail outlets. Labelling, where it exists is pathetically inadequate; one would need a magnifying glass to read the labels. Hundreds of foodstuffs in our shops are genetically engineered. This is shameful gambling with the health of our people.
Ordinary people should take heed of the warning from many concerned organisations and individuals. They should not buy genetically modified foodstuffs; they should boycott them and ask supermarkets not to sell them. The Socialist Party will make this a major issue in the coming European and local elections.
I thank Deputy Higgins for sharing his time. The greatest threat to good science is when it sells out to commercial interests. Gene technology is not driven by some altruistic view of the world but by the desire for greater profits. This results in a combination of bad science and big business rushing an untried and inadequately researched technology prematurely on to the market. It brings unprecedented risks to health, the environment and bio-diversity.
The public has every right to be sceptical about a company like Monsanto, which gave us dioxins, PCBs and agent orange and now apparently wants to feed the world. Instead, it has force fed a bland reassurance and our Government has apparently bought all its lies. It has ignored the genuine concerns of ordinary people. The Minister has reneged on his pre-election promise and embarked on what he calls a consultative process. This is simply a stalling exercise.
I applaud the work of VOICE, Greenpeace and the other NGOs who have asked for a debate on this. They have rejected the Minister's consultative process. We want a proper debate in this House and an external debate. That is the only way this issue will come to the fore. Proposals for labelling and segregation must be discussed in detail; we want proper labelling and segregation. Above all, we want a moratorium. It is only when we have that that we will be able to discuss these issues properly.
I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. I am aware of the recent concerns and media reports concerning the issue of genetically modified food. This is a very complex issue involving, inter alia, technical, scientific, ethical and economic aspects. Within the scientific aspect, there are ecological, environmental, nutritional, human health and veterinary concerns. Because of the recent emergence of this technology, we must approach the issues which it raises in a thorough, comprehensive and balanced manner.
The technology has the potential to be of great benefit to humanity. However, its potential benefits must be weighed against any potential risks. Because of the wide range of issues to be considered in relation to genetic modifications several Government Departments have responsibility for different aspects of it, including responsibility for different EU legislative instruments. My colleague, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment has responsibility for developments in the biotechnology industry while the Minister for Agriculture and Food has responsibility for EU legislation on seed varieties. I understand this legislation is in the process of being amended to take account of developments in gene technology.
My colleague, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, has responsibility for Directive 90/219 on the contained use of genetically modified organisms as well as Directive 90/220 on the deliberate release of genetically modified organisms into the environment. This directive covers the environmental risk assessment and release approval of all GMOs through both the research and development stage, known as field trials, as well as the placing of products containing GMOs on the market. The Environmental Protection Agency enforces this directive on behalf of the Minister.
My Department is the competent authority in Ireland for EU legislation pertaining to the genetic modification of foodstuffs intended for human consumption. There are two EU regu lations in this regard. Regulation No. 258/97 came into force in all member states on 15 May 1997. This regulation applies to the placing of novel foods and novel food ingredients on the market in the European Community. Food and food ingredients which have not, as of 15 May 1997, been used to a significant degree within the European Community and which contain or are produced from a genetically modified organism fall, inter alia, within its scope. In essence, the regulation provides that novel foods and novel food ingredients, if not substantially equivalent to their non-novel counterparts, must be officially approved and authorised before being placed on the European market. The regulation also contains provisions in certain instances for the labelling of novel foods and food ingredients.
The controls as outlined provide protection to consumers and I wish to assure the house that I am keeping the matter under continuing review to ensure that this continues to be the case. To assist my Department in this area, the newly established Food Safety Authority's scientific committee has set up a GMO and novel foods sub-committee which advises my Department on issues in the area of genetic modification. This sub-committee also affords a forum for the exchange of expert scientific opinion and advice on this new technology and its application to food. This sub-committee assesses applications made under Regulation 258/97.
To date, no application to place a novel food on the market has been made to my Department, being the Irish competent authority for this regulation. However, the GMO and novel foods sub-committee has commented on a number of applications which have been made to other member states. To date, no product has received approval in Europe under this regulation. However, a genetically modified soya bean manufactured by Monsanto and a genetically modified maize manufactured by Novartis, formerly Ciba Geigy, were authorised under Directive 90/220 prior to the coming into force of Regulation 258/97.
To address consumer concerns, the council published Regulation No. 1139/98 concerning the labelling of certain foodstuffs produced from genetically modified organisms. This regulation came into effect on 1 September 1998 and ensures that the provisions of Regulation 258/97 apply to foods and food ingredients consisting of or derived from GMOs which were placed on the market before the entry into force of Regulation 258/97. The aim of this regulation is to ensure that the same labelling rules, for the information of the final consumer, apply to food and food ingredients consisting of or derived from GMOs which were placed on the market before the entry into force of Regulation 258/97. In essence, if genetically modified protein or DNA is present in a foodstuff, then that foodstuff is subject to the additional labelling requirements laid down in the regulation.
Last August, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government published a consultation paper on genetically modified organisms and the environment.
The Minister's five minutes is completed; however if the House agrees, the Minister may continue. Is that agreed? Agreed.
The three main aims of this consultation paper were to explain the regulatory process, identify key issues of concern and establish the views of all interested parties. I under stand the Minister is in the final stages of consultation on this paper and that this final phase will consist of consultation over two days with interested parties and will be chaired by an independent person. Arising from this, the independent chairperson will submit a report to the Minister and having considered this, he will arrive at a national position. I await the outcome of this consultation with interest.
I reassure the house that I am keeping the matter of genetic modification of foodstuffs under continuing review and am determined to ensure that public health and the rights of consumers are fully protected.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.30 p.m. until 12.30 p.m. on Thursday, 25 February 1999.