Coveney defends ABP over US beef deal

Ireland produces the highest- quality beef on the planet, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has said as he was questioned about Larry Goodman's ABP Food Group's involvement in beef exports to the United States.

Mr Coveney said Irish companies exporting beef to the US will be able to maintain the State’s “hard-earned reputation” for high quality.

He accused Socialist TD Paul Murphy of “trying to infer something I do not think is relevant or exists” and described his question as a “distraction”.

During Dáil agriculture questions the Dublin South West TD asked if the Minister or the Department of Agriculture had concerns about "possible future effects on the reputation of Irish beef arising from the involvement of Larry Goodman's company ABP Food Group, as the first major distributor of Irish beef in America".

A deal worth €15 million annually in which Ireland becomes the only European Union country allowed to export beef to the US, after a 17-year EU-wide ban, was announced last week in the US.

The Minister said ABP Food Group was the largest beef processor in Ireland and Britain "and from my experience, runs a pretty good show". He added it was not a surprise the largest beef processor in Ireland was putting a partnership together with the largest food group in the US, Sysco Corporation.

Mr Coveney told the Dáil: “I will not allow and have not allowed personalities or history with regard to names, companies or anything to get in the way of what is a positive story for the food industry”.

Mr Murphy, in reference to the beef tribunal, said that in 1987 “a previous major deal concluded by this man and his company was welcomed by the Government. Obviously that turned out to be a disaster in respect of export credit insurance taken on by the taxpayer”.

But Mr Coveney said “my department keeps tight regulatory responsibility with all the beef companies in Ireland. No animal is killed in Ireland without being supervised by someone from my department.”

He was not sure what purpose it would service to “refer to the distant past on a regular basis and make inferences from that”.

He said he was “very comfortable that we have regulatory systems that allow us to produce the safest and highest quality beef on the planet” .