Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I want to give clarification on the last point. The information that was put in the public domain originated from the analysis, work, research and testing carried out by our authority. On Saturday the rapid alert system kicked in and all member states were alerted. However, all member states received the contents of our statement of Thursday evening. Subsequently — sometime on Friday — the Dutch authorities contacted my Department and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. They stated at that time that in examining pork products that had come through from different countries they noticed a pattern in the latter half of September that indicated dioxin levels. That was when the comparison arose. That is how that happened.

Ireland operates a residue contamination monitoring programme that is approved by the European Commission. As part of the monitoring programme, indicator PCBs are sought in samples taken from animals. Detection of PCBs in Irish meat would be considered to be an unlikely event. When it arose we sought further analysis that was done in the Central Science Laboratory in York. That was the chronology of events.

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