Only a handful of public health agencies in the Republic can provide a 24-hour service in the event of an emergency arising from a bio-terrorist attack on food or public water supplies, the chief executive of the Food and Safety Authority of Ireland warned yesterday.
It was not possible to tackle emergencies on this scale, said Dr Patrick Wall, while most of these agencies adhered strictly to normal office hours and were inaccessible at weekends.
He and the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, were responding to questions from the floor at a conference on nutrition and food safety sponsored by the Royal Irish Academy.
The EU Commissioner was more upbeat and declared that Brussels had a "rapid alert system in operation" in such an event. His colleague, Ms Margot Wallstrom, the Environment Commissioner, had a network for consumer protection in operation which worked closely with member-states in this regard. "Some member-states are very sophisticated, others are not very good, Mr Byrne said.
The issues raised by the September 11th attacks in the United States meant that "we have to fine-tune our work" to ensure an adequate response in the face of such threats.
A whole raft of concerns had to be considered, the Commissioner pointed out, such as the manufacture and purchase of pharmaceuticals and vaccines.
In his formal address to the conference the Commissioner drew attention to two proposals on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) adopted by the Commission in late July. The first provided for "a high level of protection" by requiring GM food and feed to undergo scientific risk assessments before being put on the market. This role would be carried out by the European Food Authority.
The second proposal, on "traceability", dealt with "harmonised and coherent" EU requirements so that GMOs could be traced, "if ever a problem were to emerge".
Also proposed was a directive on food supplements, to harmonise "substantially diverging national rules" in this area, as a first step for supplements containing vitamins and minerals.
Dr Wall told the conference a "chronology" of food scares had damaged consumer confidence in the safety of food. While many of the scares related to products of animal origin, the fruit and vegetable sector had not escaped unscathed.
Another speaker, Dr Mary Upton TD, the Labour Party spokeswoman on food safety, was concerned about the level of monitoring at local water supplies throughout the State. Standards needed to be upgraded, said Dr Upton, who holds a PhD in microbiology.