Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

This is quite a serious issue. Looking at the figures, there are almost 1,000 kg of identified meat products alone carried. There seems to be nothing proactive in targeting any of that, and finding it is coincidental when people are stopped for other reasons. There seems to be no process in place for identifying food products being brought in. It happens only coincidentally through the activities of the Customs and Excise staff. Against the background of our concerns about importing other animal diseases, there is a need for a more proactive role for the Department in this area.

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