Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is my constituency so I am aware of it. I am wondering what the status of the premises is at this point. Can we write back and ask for that? On page 3, point No. 6 states that following the Department's determination, the carcases must be destroyed as a result of unsatisfactory food chain information. It goes on to say that the Department issued a food fraud notification on 20 June through the EU rapid alert system for food and feed, RASFF, to the French authorities to advise of its suspicion of fraud associated with the plant, which had supplied products to a location in France to enable French authorities to assess what action might be necessary or appropriate in France. Have the French authorities provided an update to the Department of agriculture or the Minister? What are the ongoing engagements?

The following page states that it does not reach the threshold for seizure of animals. That is at the top of page 4. That has been something that people are concerned about. It might be worth asking what the threshold is for seizure. I know the Department said there were five complaints. I am surprised there were only five, because I have had people tell me that they complained on multiple occasions. When I asked the Department about it when officials were before the committee, they said there were five individual complaints. I know that one person complained multiple times. It does not seem to have been captured. The plant itself appears to have been the focus, although some of the stuff on the television programme would have given major cause for concern about the behaviour of individuals within that plant. The public has access to the fields around it to look over the fence and see.