Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I have asked that the Commission reassess the authorisation of exports from Brazil in the light of the outcome of these missions. Any deficiencies already highlighted must be properly and promptly addressed.

The other important issue with imports of meat from third counties is that such meat should be clearly identified as such so that consumers have full knowledge of its origin before purchasing it.

Significant progress has been achieved with meat labelling over the past several years. I collaborated with the Minister for Health and Children to ensure legislation was enacted last year requiring that all beef sold or served in the retail or catering sector carries an indication of country of origin. This goes much further than most, if not all, EU member states. This legislation also allows for the extension of country of origin labelling to other meats. The extension of this requirement to other meats is not as straightforward as it is for beef, however.

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has been involved in consultations with the Department of Health and Children on draft new regulations to require operators in the retail and catering sectors to provide country of origin information on poultry meat, pigmeat and sheepmeat. A public consultation on the proposed legislation conducted by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland concluded on 19 October 2007. Following consideration of any views received, it will be necessary to submit the draft regulations to the European Commission for approval. This will impose a minimum of a three month delay before the Commission can consider approval of the legislation.

Last year the European Commission undertook a consultative process on a range of issues, under a document entitled, Labelling: Competitiveness, Consumer Information and Better Regulation for the EU. As part of Ireland's submission to the Commission, we raised the definition of "substantial transformation". The concept of substantial transformation is the basis used in the EU, and elsewhere, to define the origin of goods as being from the country where the last substantial economic change was made to them.

In the submission to the Commission, we recommended the term "substantial transformation" be strictly interpreted. It is essential this process not be used to hide the true origin of products and that labelling systems be adapted to ensure consumers are not misled as regards the true provenance of a food. We would, therefore, advocate specific rules on country of origin labelling similar to the way in which this is done in the EU rules on beef origin.

I will continue to press for a satisfactory resolution to this issue in the current EU review of the general labelling directive. The Commission is expected to present a proposal on this matter in late 2007 or early 2008. I have raised this issue bilaterally with several of my EU ministerial colleagues and will continue to do so.

Reform of the regulatory regime on the imports of animal feed will provide easy access to animal feed at affordable prices. Current feed prices are exceptionally high due mainly to reduced cereal harvests in major producing countries because of drought and the diversion of cereal crops to the production of bio-fuel, particularly in the US. The EU Council of Agriculture Ministers has, in response to the pressures on the international cereal and feed markets, agreed to suspend the obligation to set aside 10% of arable land. This will increase cereal output by ensuring more arable land is available for cereal cultivation in 2008. I am also pleased the European Commission has introduced a scheme of aids to private storage for pigmeat which should provide some assistance to that sector over the coming months. This initiative was in response to my request, and that of other member states, for support for the pigmeat industry. At yesterday's Council of Ministers meeting, I called on the Commission to introduce export refunds for pigmeat and the Commission undertook to keep the market situation under review. There was a strong support for this position from many member states.

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