Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

Most of the issues raised by Deputy Sargent have already been dealt with. One of the words used by the Deputy in his question was "deluge" when referring to beef imports. In 2004 Ireland exported approximately 411,000 tonnes of beef and imported 22,000. The traffic was in the right direction from our point of view.

Both the Minister and I have indicated to this House and other fora that we intend to extend country of origin labelling of beef to the restaurant and catering sector. The necessary provisions are included in the Irish Medicines Board (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004, which is currently before the Seanad. Current beef labelling is governed by comprehensive EU regulations introduced in 2002. We have a voluntary code agreed between the restaurant sector, the two vintners organisations and the hotels sector.

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