Mr. Tom Moran:

As regards the horsemeat issue, the very fact that it was found in Ireland, originated here and then became European from here, gave rise to a huge amount of work across Europe on new regulations. Looking back on it, I suppose it was a bit of a plus for Ireland, although I would prefer if it had not happened here. It did not do serious harm to our reputation and, in fact, it enhanced our reputation as controllers in the country. These kind of things are always a risk. The new systems that have been put in place on the slaughter of horses, as well as DNA testing, are up and running.

Senator O'Keeffe and I have had that conversation before. When one is dealing with the food sector, one must be 100% vigilant. What occurred was not anticipated across Europe, including the UK or here. It is a question of what the next risk will be, so one must constantly apply a risk approach to food production. By and large, however, we have handled it well. There is still the possibility of prosecutions involved, but I think we have handled it well. It went on into the European system and did not do any harm to our reputation as a result of that. We applied some of the principles we had applied in previous food safety or fraud issues. We were up front, found something and dealt with it definitively. It is the only way to deal with it.

We can cover crop diversification by allowing the green cover to be deemed as part of the equivalence. That is the way we will handle it.