Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this important issue. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Tim O'Malley, but I had hoped the Tánaiste would deal with the issue because of the damning detail disclosed in this report.

An investigation of 90 food businesses completed in 2004 by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland revealed that consumers are regularly misled on the country of origin of beef, chicken and salmon. Inspectors visited five agents, nine wholesalers, 29 food processors, 12 hotels and restaurants, 31 shops and supermarkets, two cold stores and two slaughter plants. The report highlighted passing off imported salmon as Irish and labelling "farmed" salmon as "wild", South American beef labelled and marketed as Irish, Belgian chicken labelled "Produced in Ireland" and the "use by" date on food products tampered with. In more than one fifth of shops and supermarkets information regarding loose and packaged beef did not adequately inform the consumer as required by beef labelling regulations.

The FSAI refused to publish the report, claiming that it was to carry out a more extensive report in 2005. However, no report was produced and it will now not comment on the report which was eventually disclosed through the Freedom of Information Act. Although the Departments of Agriculture and Food and Health and Children have been aware of the contents of this report for more than 12 months, nothing has happened. Consumers have rights and should be able to tell easily from the labels on food where exactly it comes from.

The report states:

Where the audit team were not in a position to verify through labelling or commercial documentation that beef being marketed as Irish, was in fact Irish, official samples were taken. Of the official samples taken 4 (14.8%) tested positive for the presence of the Zebu gene which indicated that this beef originated in South America. In each of these cases, the result was reported to the proprietor and the official agency with responsibility for supervising the premises. The official agency carried out any follow up with the premises involved. This follow up may have included audits and/or re-assessment of the traceability and recall procedures in place in these establishments to ensure the consumer was not being misled with respect to country of origin declarations.

What follow-up procedures were carried out and what was the result of those reassessments following the report of the FSAI that was brought to the attention of the official agencies? What have the Departments of Agriculture and Food, and Health and Children done since they became aware of this report? A farmer who failed to meet the law laid down on traceability tagging systems would have the full weight of the Department of Agriculture and Food and the special investigations unit on top of him. His animals would be seized, his farm would be closed and he would not be able to dispose of any animal. Deputy Connaughton has raised a similar issue regarding a farmer who could not be paid by a slaughter facility as the tags were missing from an animal. The farmer was required to go through genetic testing to prove that the animal came from his farm. We seem to have one standard for the farming community and another standard for the processing industry.

The Government has been blatantly negligent in this abuse of our food labelling and traceability systems. The report of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland into traceability and recall systems is damning and the Government has done nothing about it. Pork from the United States of America, chicken from south-east Asia, lamb from New Zealand, beef from Brazil and vegetables from Israel are all being served on restaurant tables or used in Irish processed foods and being passed off as Irish food products. That is unacceptable. Irish consumers are shopping blindfolded and are being misled as to what is going on. A chicken fillet can be imported from Asia, bread-crumbed and called an Irish product. That cannot and should not be tolerated any longer.

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