Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

This continues to be a significant problem, particularly regarding the meat sold by the catering industry. Current EU regulations allow for meat, which has undergone what it terms substantial transformation, to be imported into the EU from third countries, processed and passed off as Irish produce.

There are many problems with current meat labelling requirements. According to EU beef labelling regulations, beef imported into Ireland from a non-EU country which does not meet all the requirements set out can still be sold if it is labelled as non-EU. It is merely an indication as to where slaughter took place. This is far from ideal. It does not give enough guarantees to consumers, particularly as there are numerous food scares in many EU states.

The Minister is aware that there is an extensive foot and mouth outbreak in Brazil. If third country meat is slaughtered or processed in some manner, such as pork to sausages or the addition of breadcrumbs, the processor can label the product as Irish. This does not represent the true origins of the meat. What we state clearly is that we want to know what people eat. We want to know the truth and it should be labelled as such. Deputy Smith should pay attention now that he interrupted me.

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