Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I consistently said as late as last night that I am not condemning all Polish food and putting a question mark over it. Much of the food imported from Poland into Ireland is of very high quality and comes from certified plant. We have a very large Polish population in Ireland and many members of it import food. Other food companies import product from Poland in the same way as they do from other countries in the EU. That is what a common market is all about and because of that common market, we have a large food industry which is predominantly based on exports. We should not give out about food that is imported into Ireland when we export nearly 90% of the food we produce.

The problem is that all of the ingredient we tested - the only ingredient that has consistently tested positive for significant amounts of equine DNA - is labelled as coming from Poland.

We have the paperwork to show that much of that product was paid for and sourced either directly from Poland or through meat traders from Polish companies. We would like to work closely with the Polish authorities on this. We have invited them to come to Ireland so that we can show them all the evidence in our possession showing how all of this Polish-labelled product is regarded as the source of our problem. I have to be open and transparent about the test results. We have released a large number of test results at different times. We have had to inform people of the origin of the product that tested positive. All the data shows that there is one common thread, which is that it is all labelled as Polish product. If we can establish that someone is tampering with that product between the time it leaves Poland and its entry into a facility such as Silvercrest or Rangeland, we need to do so without delay. There are different ways the product can come into Ireland - either directly from a company or through two different meat traders. The end result is the same, which is that the meat has tested positive for equine DNA. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to draw the conclusion that there is a problem with product coming from Poland. I do not say this lightly. We informed the Polish authorities before we went public on this, at veterinary, Department and ministerial office level. My direct counterpart does not speak English and I do not speak Polish so, without wishing to state the obvious, it is difficult for us to have a conversation on the telephone. What I would like to see happen is for senior Polish investigators and vets to come to Ireland, to sit around a table with our team and with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and to go through all the evidence we have in an effort to piece together how this could have happened. That is an open invitation and I hope they will avail of it. Our only interest is in getting to the bottom of what happened.

On the questions about ABP companies, other ABP companies supply product to Silvercrest or have done so. ABP owns a large number of plants in Ireland, including slaughterhouses. However, none of that other product has tested positive for equine DNA. ABP is a big company which is responsible for 25% of the Irish beef industry and also 25% of Britain's beef industry. I can only go on the data such as the records I receive from the investigation by our team. All of the problem product containing equine DNA was imported, and all was labelled as coming from the same country, albeit from a number of different traders and companies.

There is a market for meat just as there is for every other commodity. Meat is a commodity which is traded across borders. There are and should be systems in the European Union to ensure that a common standard for inspection and traceability is in place in every European country. The existence of common regulations for the food industry is one of the benefits of living in the European Union. However, it is clear there has been a breach of regulations in this case. Somebody is selling rogue product and is doing so knowingly. That is the focus of the investigation. In response to the simplistic argument that we should not import anything from other EU member states when we have a significant beef industry of our own, it should be remembered that we also have a significant export industry that requires extra imported product if there is not sufficient Irish product to fill orders. It takes a lot of product to produce 200 million burgers in a year.

I am unable to give the exact price differential but I will provide those figures if they are available in the data we have collected. I suspect that is commercially sensitive information and the Department does not have it.

There have been references to bulking agent. This product was all labelled as beef meat trimmings, which is a different product from bulking agent. On the question of why the Department asked the Garda Síochána and the special investigations unit to investigate at this stage, we are now at a different phase of the investigation. The first investigation was to establish whether the finding of 29% horsemeat in a burger, as highlighted by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, could have been a freak result or whether there was something systematically wrong at Silvercrest. We established the fact that this was an imported product which should not have been going into the manufacture of burgers. Given the information from Rangeland, considering some of the meat traders involved and given the vocal concerns expressed in the media by the Polish authorities, we want to establish who knew what and when and if fraud or criminality was involved. The Garda Síochána can provide very helpful experience to the investigation. When this process is finished, members will ask me whether criminal activity was involved and if anyone will be brought to court and punished for the damage they have done to the industry. I need to be able to answer all those questions. The special investigations unit has significant experience, as has the Garda Síochána, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and my Department's officials and vets. The combination of all that experience and knowledge will help us to get to the bottom of the matter as quickly as possible. We do not want this investigation to last forever. Damage is being done to our reputation. I hope Professor Reilly is correct in saying that at the end of this process, the robustness of our systems - which raised the red flag about this issue in the first place, worked out how it could have happened and put procedures in place to ensure it does not happen again - will allow us to continue to make the claim that we have the best systems for food safety anywhere in the European Union.

Deputy Pringle asked why this problem was not identified during the auditing process. The Department audits companies to establish whether they meet the required food safety and traceability standards. We do not carry out testing for equine DNA, but that may change in the future. We do not check the contracts with companies such as Tesco to ensure a manufacturer supplies what it has agreed to supply, such as the percentage of meat in burgers or Irish-sourced beef. That is a commercial relationship between suppliers and their customers. Our auditing system is concerned with ensuring that the rules are complied with in the factory so that consumers are protected as regards food safety and traceability.

Silvercrest is one of the largest and most modern burger production facilities in the world. It is a really impressive plant to the eye. We could not identify any compromise on food safety as far as we could see. However, it is clear that horsemeat was getting into the system and there was poor management of contracts with significant and valuable customers.