Minister denies Dutch told him about dioxins

DUTCH AUTHORITIES contacted the Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) only after the Government made public that it was investigating the source of animal feed contamination, the Minister for Agriculture has insisted.

Brendan Smith told the Dáil during a special debate on the dioxin crisis that the Dutch authorities' investigation "indicated an increase in dioxin levels in mid-September". The Dutch had been unable to determine the origin of the contaminant, "though Ireland was one of the countries from which product was sourced".

Mr Smith said, however, "it is important to stress that at no point was the department responding to information provided from an other member state and we were contacted only after we put information in the public domain".

Mr Smith has also insisted that he is "entirely satisfied" that it was the "appropriate response" to have a "full recall of pork and bacon products" to reassure consumers that the products available following recall "would be perfectly safe to consume".

A new An Bord Bia labelling system would clearly identify products as "post-recall pork" and they would be "back on the shelves very quickly".

Minister of State for Health Mary Wallace said the "evaluation process must be completed to ensure that all affected product is identified and restricted before post-recall product can be placed on the market".

However, as Opposition deputies repeatedly asked the Minister when processing could restart, Mr Smith said they had issued a trade notice on Sunday that "those involved in the trade could start moving produce from slaughter houses and start processing, as long as they met the requirements of our veterinary services and the FSAI, one of which was the need to verify that the pigs they were about to slaughter, or had slaughtered, did not have any connection with any of the farms where the potentially contaminated food ingredient had arrived".

Olwyn Enright (FG, Laois-Offaly) said, however, that traders "cannot resume processing because they cannot get paid and they cannot pay their staff".

The Minister said "we hope to finalise talks with processors as early as possible. Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Michael Creed said the department was an "abject failure" and this was added to because "if this facility had been subject to greater scrutiny by the department, the appropriate test for dioxin in the food product would not have been conducted because the cost of dioxin tests is in excess of 1,000 each".

Mr Creed added that "farmers in all sectors, including the pig sector, have invested enormous amounts of time and money in a traceability system that has been shown not to work in the pig sector. Otherwise, why should there be a 100 per cent recall of product for a 10 per cent incidence of contamination"?

Labour agriculture spokesman Seán Sherlock said that "if the EU will not provide a compensation package" the commission and the European Food Safety Authority should at least "issue a statement within 24 to 48 hours indicating that production can commence again".

Willie Penrose (Labour, Longford-Westmeath) was "reassured by what I am hearing, particularly regarding beef production".

He said : "I intend to eat steak tomorrow and, as a consumer myself, that is the best assurance I can give."

Sinn Féin agriculture spokesman Martin Ferris warned of the need to address the impact of the crisis in overseas markets.

He said: "There is potential for it to cause longer term damage if the withdrawal of Irish pork undermines overseas consumer confidence."

Eamon Scanlon (FF, Sligo-Leitrim) asked: "If it is the case that the packaging on the bread and on whatever other product was used, was not removed and possibly at the high temperature melted into the feed, could this be the cause of these PCBs in the food chain?

Mr Smith said: "I have been informed that the wrapping is taken off by machines before the product, the unused food, goes back into the process."