Susan O'Keeffe (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Like Deputy Penrose, I wish to ask about the GM element. Mr. Moran stated that "hormones" is not a good word. Equally, genetic modification is not good. GM has not formed part of this presentation and I would be grateful for Mr. Moran's clarification on that.

I was not clear about Mr. Moran's observation that "we also need to be mindful of any quotas that may be offered to the US in beef and we continue to urge caution regarding the size and composition of any beef quota ...". What does he mean by that? Does he mean that it ought not to be too big?

Has the Department identified the potential suppliers or the potential plants that were assessed? Mr. Moran obviously knows which ones they are. Do we know?

On the overall European position on horsemeat, is everybody now satisfied following the difficulties last year? Has the European position on regulation, control and safety been nailed down? Are we in a better place where there will not be a recurrence of what occurred last year? Obviously, the number of players involved was quite large and the chain is quite long. If there was meant to have been a big European statement on that, I wonder where that is.

Finally, on Mr. Moran's observations about the food sector, he spoke about the negotiation that took place under the Greek Presidency on the food sector and the global promotion policy. I wonder what on earth the global promotion policy is, particularly as it is more focused on the commercial aspects of the sector. I appreciate that Mr. Moran could not give all the detail in that regard because we probably would have been here for quite a long time, but a small bit more would be helpful.