Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department works closely with Animal Health Ireland in this area. We did introduce an ex gratiapayment in 2016 to fund the removal of animals. No one is going to make much money on the scheme but it does help. I appreciate the difficulty for any neighbouring herdowner whose herd becomes infected through no fault of his own. However, we would not want to overstate the significance of the incidence either, which currently stands at 0.33%.

The recent detection of clenbuterol proves the benefit of the investment the State makes in traceability and inspections, which are the cornerstone of the industry which we seek to promote, protect and see prosper.

That this incident was detected and dealt with effectively is good. The Department was led on the matter primarily by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland in terms of consumer safety. I share the Deputy’s frustration that somebody would recklessly put the entire industry in the spotlight. I am pleased, however, that the Department’s monitoring, surveillance and traceability systems stood up to scrutiny. I cannot say too much about the topic because it is the subject of ongoing investigation, but the Department will pursue the matter appropriately.

Deputy Martin Kenny raised the issue of our level of compliance. The subtext is that we are always the good people in Europe in complying with all of the regulations, but the reward is that we have the lowest milk prices in Europe. The Deputy is conflating two issues. As an island nation which produces a lot of food across many ranges, we have to export 90% of it. Accordingly, we have to have the highest standards. In terms of the commitment of primary producers to origin green labelling and reducing our carbon footprint, it is critical to our marketing initiative because it gives us a cutting edge in the prices we can seek and as we seek to add value in the food chain. We export 90% of our dairy produce. Many of the markets across the European Union which are paying higher prices for milk are substantially domestic markets. They do not have the cost of getting their product to, say, the United States, the rest of Europe or emerging markets in China. Our second largest market for dairy produce outside the United Kingdom is China. We have the associated costs. Even at a time when the Chinese market has slowed, we have increased our footprint there, particularly for infant formula, but we can only do it if we are the best in class. I do not believe we should make any apology for being best in class in meeting the minimum standards required by the European Union. We should also give ourselves an additional edge in the marketplace with our origin green, carbon footprint programmes. If we did not have all of this, what would the price be?