Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

We appreciate the work and interest of the Tánaiste in that regard. People in general are concerned about labelling, as surveys have shown. The Minister has raised at European level the need for further advances in this area. We have made advances on beef and the regulations will be in place from 3 July. The Minister has also raised with the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection the need to make progress on labelling, particularly of poultry, and on substantial transformation which has been regularly raised here.

In recent weeks the Commission has been reviewing food labelling. We told the public, different organisations and individual Members of the Oireachtas that they should contribute their views to this consultative process. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, also issued an invitation to groups or individuals to submit their views.

It is significant that the Commission has accepted the need to review this legislation. We would like to achieve substantive progress at European level on more safeguard mechanisms for food labelling and transparency etc. Legislation passed by these Houses earlier this year included the provision that we can extend our labelling from beef to the other meats, such as sheep and pig meat, and to poultry. We have been extremely active in the area of labelling.

The labelling group report published at the end of December 2002 contained 21 major recommendations, 19 of which have been implemented before the new regulations on labelling of beef are introduced. The remaining ones relate to the country of origin of other meats too. There has been substantial progress in this area. We continue to push hard at European level for further advances, particularly in respect of substantial transformation and the inclusion of poultry and other meats in the context of labelling.

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