Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion.

I represent a rural constituency and like many other Members I work and interact with the agri-sector and farm families. In light of yesterday's announcement, I have lost a large tract of rural area from my constituency and it has been replaced with an even larger tract of rural area so this debate is even more relevant again.

Many issues affect farm families and the agri-sector and food labelling is one such issue. The lifestyle associated with farming and the 24-seven nature of the commitment it involves is significant.

In recent years, much good work has been done in the area of food labelling and traceability at EU and national level. The customer is quite correct in demanding more information, higher standards and improved quality. Ireland has invested heavily in the development of traceability systems. The National Beef Assurance Scheme Act 2000 came into force in 2002 against a background of increasing consumer awareness of the importance of good quality and safe food and the need for high standards of production and processing throughout the food chain.

The purpose of the Act is to provide additional guarantees to consumers on the safety of Irish beef by the establishment of common high standards of production and processing across the industry. Under the Act, all participants in the beef industry must be registered and approved for business.

The Act underpins the Irish bovine animal identification and tracing system, which traces the origin, identity, movements and life history of cattle. In line with animal traceability there have been comprehensive EU regulations on labelling of beef since 2000. These regulations require those marketing beef within the Community to provide information on the label to enable the beef to be traced back to the source animals and the country of origin.

Last year, new extended beef labelling rules came into operation in Ireland. These require hotels, restaurants, pubs providing food and effectively all catering establishments and food service outlets, to give information on the country of origin of the beef they serve. This new labelling provision will benefit everyone in the supply chain, from farmer to butcher and right through to the end customer.

Furthermore, last year the hygiene and public health protection rules were streamlined and the new hygiene package covers everything from the animal health of the milking animals to the labelling of finished products leaving the processing plant. There is an increasing and justifiable demand from consumers at home and abroad for the highest standards of hygiene and quality and we must respond to that demand by ensuring that the standards laid down in the regulations are not alone achieved but surpassed. In the proposed legislation, "origin" will be defined as the country where the animal was reared and, if different, the country of slaughter. This will have to be indicated on meat and meat products containing more than 70% meat. Regardless of the nature, extent or location of the processing or packaging that has gone into the manufacture of the product, the requirement to show actual country of rearing and slaughter of the animal will remain in place and substantial transformation will not override this.

The ideal situation would be to have European-wide legislation on origin labelling of these other meats in the same way as for beef. This would make compliance and enforcement much more feasible. I understand that the Minister, Deputy Mary Coughlan, has lost no opportunity to impress this on her EU ministerial colleagues. The Department has also contributed to a Commission consultation process on the broad area of food labelling where emphasis was placed on the importance of providing the consumer with comprehensive information on the origin of meat.

In my constituency, a privately-owned food producing company, Castlemahon Poultry Products Limited, closed its doors over the past year. The parent company was located outside the jurisdiction in Ballymena. The company had a significant impact on my constituency of Limerick West. Apart from the labelling issue which was raised during the liquidation process, the Castlemahon brand which is known both nationally and internationally was not registered. One of the assets was the brand name. The liquidator registered the brand name and sold it. This was a lesson to be learned.

As a TD representing a rural constituency, I meet farmers and farm families on a daily basis. They have every confidence in the Minister, Deputy Mary Coughlan and in the Ministers of State.

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