Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this very important issue on the Adjournment.

Last Monday there was confirmation of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the Brazilian herd. Before that, countries such as the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea had already banned the importation of beef from Brazil because of the risk of importing foot and mouth disease.

I understand that earlier today the Minister for Agriculture and Food announced a proposal to ban Brazilian beef from specified regions. That does not go far enough since all Brazilian beef should be banned immediately. The reason that I call for such a ban and that the Minister's action is inadequate is that the most recent EU Food and Veterinary Office report on the Brazilian beef industry, carried out in May 2004, expressed serious concerns about such issues as animal traceability, vaccinations, animal movement systems and slaughterhouse hygiene. The office found in the case of Brazil that significant food safety issues persist. Such deficiencies are of serious concern to Ireland given that Brazil is our largest supplier of imported beef.

In early 2003, when the office previously inspected the control systems in place in Brazil from the farm to export stage, similar complaints regarding the structures in place were identified. It is of considerable concern that the inadequacies regarding hygiene and traceability systems in Brazil remain unresolved, based on the most up-to-date information available. Deficiencies identified in that report include identification and certification of animals, farm registration and movement controls. Even the central database had several inconsistencies in it. However, the two most damning comments in that report concerned the control of EU exports, the first stating that: "A number of deficiencies identified in respect of animal identification and movement control undermine the possibility to trace back to the farm of origin." The second was: "Mistakes were noted in respect of the examination of muzzles for FMD in one establishment and no strict separation between EU and non-EU eligible meat in the chilling rooms in another."

If the Minister is talking about a partial ban on the importation of beef, both those concerns raised by the EU Food and Veterinary Office are a damning indictment of the proposal and the decision by the Minister today. Those comments were made by an independent agency appointed by the EU to carry out such inspections, but the Minister is prepared to ignore that information and only ban beef from certain regions in Brazil.

I would like the Minister of State to answer two simple questions. First, why was the inspection of the Brazilian meat industry due to take place last April postponed after it had emerged that the Brazilian tagging and traceability scheme had been abandoned? How, when those systems are not in place, can the Government reassure farmers that their animals are protected from the risk of foot and mouth disease and the public that there is no real or significant threat to the Irish economy? An outbreak of foot and mouth disease in this country would have a disastrous impact on the economy as the national herd and the economic survival of livestock farmers are at stake.

The Minister's piecemeal approach is entirely inappropriate. It is imperative that there is an immediate and outright ban on Brazilian beef. When the Minister decided to act on this, she should have done so with conviction by taking the only course of action that would ensure the protection of our national herd and our economy. Instead of keeping the situation under review, the Minister must take decisive action to shut down the importation of Brazilian beef.

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