Sir, - Like the Minister for Agriculture and Food, I used to think incineration was the only way to destroy the BSE prion. Unlike the Minister, however, I have since discovered research which casts doubt on that belief and more hopefully suggests alternative sophisticated technologies such as alkaline hydro lysis. This is a more controlled and clean way of destroying BSE.
Even with these developments, Mr Joe Walsh to date is intent on having an incinerator, which would take at least four years to build. This means that after a year of operation the BSE-related animal waste would be burned, leaving dubious ash as a legacy and the incinerator would have about 19 years of design life left for dioxin-creating hazardous or municipal waste perhaps?
As suspected, it seems now that turning infected meat and bone into ash laced with BSE is actually a Trojan horse for building an incinerator - not for ending the BSE crisis. The main beneficiaries of such a "mad-minister-disease" policy would be our food-producing competitors such as New Zealand, which are avoiding incineration to preserve high standards in their food quality.- Is mise,
Trevor Sargent, TD, Spokesperson on Agriculture and Food, Green Party/Comhaontas Glas, Dail Eireann, Dublin 2.