John Carty (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I too wish to compliment the Minister and her Ministers of State on the manner in which they are handling the decoupling issue and implementing the deal in consultation with all the interested parties.

For years farmers rightly complained about all the bureaucracy which was attached to the various schemes. It is a well-known fact that Ireland must export 90% of the food it produces to other countries and it is therefore necessary that the production of safe animal food products begins with the use of safe animal feed. Animal feed is thus one of the most important sectors within agriculture. Annual production figures for compound feed for sale in 2003 were as follows: the EU 25 member states — 142 million tonnes; Ireland — 3.66 million tonnes, of which 58% was for ruminants; 19% for pigs; 13% for poultry; and 9% for other species.

Licensed manufacturers of compound feeds use more than 80% of available feed materials as feed ingredients. Less than 2% are fed as straight feed or used for on-farm mixing, which is mainly confined to ruminant diets and a small number of specialised pig producers. The EU imports a large proportion of its protein requirements such as soya bean meal, corn gluten and cotton seed meal.

The underlying principles which apply to legislation in the area of animal feed are that feeding stuffs do not endanger food safety, do not pose a risk to animal health, meet minimum standards, are accurately labelled and are fully traceable. Most of the legislation on animal feed originates at EU level and the measures extend to specific controls on issues such as additives in feeding stuffs, marketing of compound feeding stuffs, putting into circulation of feeding materials, undesirable substances and products in animal feed, approval and registration of establishments operating in the animal feed sector, animal nutrition inspections and genetically modified feed.

In addition, there are a number of measures under veterinary legislation which impact directly on the animal feed industry, for example, processed animal protein, medicated feeding stuffs and animal by-products. Following on from a series of well-publicised incidents in Europe concerning animal feed, for example, BSE, dioxins and the MPA hormone, the Commission undertook a review in 1999 of the position in regard to the existing legislation and control activities in food and animal feed, including veterinary matters. The outcome of this review was published in January 2000 in the form of a White Paper on food safety.

Some of the problems identified in regard to animal feed in the White Paper included lack of coherence and uniformity of approach in food and feed legislation and non-uniform implementation of controls across member states in some cases, the complexity and subsequent lack of understanding of the legislation and the apparent lack of self-control in the animal feed industry when compared with the food industry. With a consistent push by Commissioner David Byrne to have most of the action points of the White Paper on food safety completed before the end of his Commission term, a whole series of legislative proposals have come through on food and feed.

The two most recent regulations relate to the feed area, namely, the regulation on official food and feed controls, EC (2004) 882, and the regulation laying down requirements for feed hygiene. Both of these pieces of legislation were finalised during the recent Irish Presidency. The regulation on official food and feed controls is wide-ranging and is directed at member states to establish adequate controls in the food and feed areas. It impinges on both the food and feed areas of the Department of Agriculture and Food as well as the Department of Health and Children. This legislation will involve less change in feed control than in food control activities, as the core issues are already firmly enshrined in feed control legislation. The feed hygiene regulation consolidates and extends the scope of the directive requiring the approved registration of certain feed business operators to include all other operators in the feed chain. Feed export controls are implemented through inspection and sampling by authorised staff at stages of the feed chain, including importation, storage, manufacture and use at farm level. Every effort is made by the Department of Agriculture and Food to implement the legislation and ensure the safety of the feed and food chain is kept intact. It is clear that the feed industry is a vital link in the safety of the food chain.

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