Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I was not aware of any statement on the beef issue. We only got the results back from the FSAI just before lunchtime and we put them in the public domain right away. I believe it was very important to reassure our consumers and the people involved in the beef industry. The very strong confirmation from the Food Safety Authority of Ireland of no risk to public health from beef was very important and was welcomed by Deputies Kenny and Gilmore during Leaders' Questions earlier. I put on the record of the House that results have been received for marker PCBs in beef. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland is evaluating the results of the samples taken from 11 herds from the 45 farms that have been restricted as a result of having received potentially contaminated feed and it is satisfied there is no public health concern. That is the accurate information. I was not aware of any information to the contrary.

Deputy Blaney asked about storage capacity. Obviously processors will need to go out and earn market share again. As we all know every day that is lost causes further difficulty. We will work with the industry should there be any storage capacity problems. That is one of the issues we have been discussing. I instructed Bord Bia, the other State agencies with offices overseas and our embassies to embark on an information exercise to get the proper information to the consumers in the markets that we value so much and that so many of our processors have worked so hard to gain.

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