Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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I also welcome Mr. Bryan, Mr. Kinsella and Mr. Smith.

On the inspection of beef production in the Mercosur countries, the IFA exposed this in Brazil a number of years ago and there was much controversy about it. If we were exporting beef to the United States, there would be a strict regime in the factories in the production of beef for such export. I had experience of this when I was involved where there were regular strict inspections and a series of recommendations to keep one's market. Now that things have turned around, why is there not the same level of inspection, and standards set, by the EU?

I also want to ask about the area of food identification. In my constituency, we saw the collapse of the poultry sector, in both Cantoher and Castlemahon, which was partially due to imports from the Far East and the identification in the market of the product itself. As it was packed in the EU, it got an EU identification.

With regard to competition in the beef sector, the IFA informed us of the increased contribution of the sector, but what about the contribution to the producer? Does the delegation have a reflection on the general issue of competition internally, but also competition between the live market and the beef exports? That was a live issue in the past in regard to keeping the price of the finished beef product high. Would it make a comment on that?