Dáil debates

Wednesday, 24 October 2007

Agrifood Industry: Motion (Resumed)

 

8:00 pm

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I would like to focus on an issue, which I have raised with the Minister on numerous occasions, namely, the unpublished 2004 report by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland into the traceability and recall systems within the food industry. The report highlighted the complete failure of the current labelling regime to protect domestic shoppers. The report stated consumers are often misled on the country of origin of beef, chicken and salmon. It found that beef products marked and labelled as Irish originated in South America and imported salmon and chicken were also labelled as Irish. It was also pointed out that one fifth of retail outlets did not provide adequate information in line with laws in place at the time on loose and packaged beef.

I cannot understand why the Government is unwilling or unprepared to enforce the laws relating to the retail and catering sectors. A total of 75% of catering outlets and 20% of retail outlets are ignoring the law. While the Minister pontificated about all she was doing last night, it would be more in her line to ensure the legislation passed by the Oireachtas was enforced and resources were provided to do so. The Minister will pass the buck to someone else on this issue but the law is not being enforced.

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