Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to echo the welcoming comments that have been made. I thank the Minister and Professor Reilly for their comprehensive statements and replies. I will pick up on one or two things that have been touched on. Like Senator O'Neill, I have to say I have not heard any great understanding of the worries of the Silvercrest workers and families in all of this. The Minister has said on the record that Silvercrest's state-of-the-art plant is currently operating at 50% of its capacity.

This would seem to suggest it is a jewel in the crown, irrespective of what has been happening in this regard. In the Minister's opinion, what will be the future of the plant? When the investigations are completed, will the Department have any responsibility towards the workers and towards the plant itself, or is that for the owners, from whom we have not heard very much at all?

On a point touched on by Senators Comiskey and O'Neill, does the Minister consider that this has once again pointed out the pressures that are being placed by the supermarket multiples on food producers and processors? Senator O'Neill talked about pricing. When this issue broke, a number of family butchers contacted the Joe Duffy show to point out that even in a small family butchers, which would have low costs, the minimum cost of producing a full Irish beefburger is about €2 - that was the best price at which they could produce and sell it. Despite this, Tesco was selling the - let us say - questionable burgers at €1 for six burgers. Surely there is a moral dimension to this as well. Have the multiples questions to answer? I am not suggesting for one moment that they knew what was going on. However, it seems to me that the pressure is such on Silvercrest and the other processors that they knew they needed to keep their costs down to such a degree that they probably had to bring in less than 100% beef because it was cheaper. I am not saying that is the case; I am just asking whether this could be one of the reasons this has happened.

There is a question mark to be raised over the supermarket multiples, which were very quick to withdraw millions of products from the shelves, although the Minister had repeatedly stated there was no health hazard or food safety element whatsoever. Initially, they had planned to destroy those burgers, which also created a lot of public controversy at the time, and I understand they are now thinking of recycling it as pet food. Is it not rather a sad observation that, in the environment in which we are currently living, where a recent report showed that over half of the food consumers purchase is thrown away, we are now talking about burgers that are safe for human consumption, irrespective of perception or the yuck factor, being recycled into animal food? Does the Minister have any comment as to whether this is the best way of dealing with the issue, considering one half of the world is starving while the other half is throwing away half of all food purchased?