Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy will be aware that we already have in place a full identification, traceability and labelling system for beef under comprehensive EU regulations. The labelling requirements under those regulations extend up to and including retail level and to the point of delivery into hotels, restaurants and catering establishments.

My priority in this area is to extend the existing beef labelling laws to require information on the country of origin of beef to be provided to all consumers in the restaurant and catering sectors. The Minister, Deputy Coughlan, put specific proposals to Government at the end of June for a legislative framework to facilitate this, by way of an amendment to the Health Act 1947. This will be introduced under the Irish Medicines Board (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2005 which is before the Oireachtas this session. The appropriate regulations are being worked on concurrently and I intend to have these cleared at EU level as soon as possible. When the Act is amended and the regulations made, country of origin information will be available to consumers in respect of all beef served in restaurants, hotels and the whole catering sector in Ireland on a mandatory basis.

In the meantime the various representative bodies including the Irish Hotels Federation, the Restaurants Association of Ireland and both of the vintners' groups, following discussions with my Department, have all agreed to recommend to their members the introduction on a voluntary basis and in advance of the mandatory legal requirement of a mechanism for providing consumers in their premises with information on the country of origin of the beef served there. This agreement was finalised last week and these organisations are at various stages in the process. I expect the voluntary system will be in place soon.

During the discussions with the industry representatives, it was stressed that the information on the origin of the beef served or supplied on their premises must be clearly displayed at the point of consumption, either on the menu or on a poster, chalk board or similar display so that it can be easily read and clearly understood by all consumers. The information must include all countries from which the premises is sourcing its beef and all statements of origin must be verifiable and be capable of linkage with the delivery records to the establishment. When the legislation is enacted, the necessary enforcement provisions will be through the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.

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