German beef is being imported into the State by Irish beef processors while thousands of Irish animals are being slaughtered for destruction, it was learned yesterday.
Department of Agriculture sources confirmed it was aware that beef was being imported here and was attempting to ascertain the level of imports. "While it is quite legal to import beef from Germany under the Single Market rules, we are looking at the level of importation in the light of the Slaughter for Destruction Scheme, which is a market control mechanism," said one senior official.
"We are trying to find out if the German beef is being reprocessed here while the factories are dumping the dearer Irish beef into the Slaughter for Destruction Scheme," he said.
Shortly before Christmas, Germany imposed a voluntary ban on the sale and export of processed beef products because of its first native cases of BSE. Germany had denied having the disease until November 22nd and had not been removing the specified risk material (SRM) from its slaughtered animals.
Since then, the German market has collapsed at home and in the countries it served.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs that the destruction scheme was not his preferred option to deal with the crisis. But, he said, Ireland was left with no alternative but to use it as a market control mechanism when overseas markets collapsed. To date, nearly 25,000 animals had been destroyed. But the scheme still only accounted for one-third of slaughterings.
Questioned about the accuracy of the Enfer test to determine if an animal had BSE, the Minister said this EU-ratified test was "an additional precautionary measure and that is all that can be said about it". The ultimate protection for consumers, he said, was the removal of SRM from cattle as no infection had ever been found in beef tissue.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said it may award a licence to a plant in Ballinasloe, Co Galway, in the coming weeks to dispose of SRM. It may take longer to issue licences to other plants that have applied, if at all, the sub-committee on Environment and Local Government heard yesterday.
Monery By-Products in Cavan is the only plant in the State licensed to render SRM and shortly after the destruction scheme began it ran into capacity problems. The plant now puts SRM into cold storage.
Premier Proteins in Ballinasloe has been issued a draft licence and so far no objections have been made to a full licence being awarded, said Mr Iain MacLean, EPA director of licensing control.
Mr MacLean said incineration was the only method of effectively disposing of SRM. "At present we are not aware of a sustainable alternative to incineration," he said.