Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The question referred to the feeding of meat and bonemeal. There has been no evidence of that being an issue in any of the BSE cases. Prosecutions have taken place and are pending regarding other issues relating to BSE, but not for the feeding of meat and bonemeal, since that has not happened.

Regarding the sporadic occurrences in animals born after the introduction of the ban, they are of concern to the Department. Extremely thorough investigations have taken place in the past few years. There have been eight cases of infected animals born after the 1997 ban. They have been thoroughly investigated and we have not been able to ascertain any definitive source of the disease in the individual cases. One or two issues were dealt with, but we prefer not to speak of them since court cases are pending in the near future. However, they were not connected with the use of meat and bonemeal.

In the UK there have been approximately 100 cases; there have been eight here. There has been a massive reduction in the number of BSE-infected animals. I have been advised by the professionals that there will be sporadic occurrences. The Deputy can rest assured that if there is anything untoward or illegal, or which undermines the control systems, it will be dealt with as harshly as the laws allow. We conduct ongoing reviews regarding the investigations that have taken place in the past few years. If we were alarmed by a great increase in numbers, for example, it would be necessary to put a task force in place in the Department, but we do not believe that is the case at present.

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