Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is correct that we want pork products back on the shelves as quickly as possible. An assurance can be given that, post-recall, all Irish pork products on shelves at home and abroad will be proper and appropriate products. Those ten production units on the nine farms identified as being in receipt of the contaminated feed are restricted and no product from those farms will find its way onto the food market. It is correct to say that as soon as we can get processing back up and running we will be able to give that guarantee. That is the reason the discussions we are having are so urgent and are ongoing. That assurance can be given. The source of the contamination, the feed, and the pork fat which was contaminated as a result, will not come on the market because of the restriction on the units concerned.

The place that manufactured this dough, which was fed into a composition of a crumb that was part of the feed of pigs and cattle on the 38 units, 45 herds of which are being examined, was inspected in 2007. It was an annual inspection. The EPA would deal with the question of the oil. The manufacturer was obliged to use suitable oil for that purpose. It is clear at this stage of the investigation that it was an unsuitable oil product and this seems to be the source of the contamination. The FSAI has said that is the likely source, and those investigations continue. The owners are being spoken to about that to get to the bottom of it. The oil should not have been used by the owners of the plant. It has had this outcome. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the FSAI have reacted to that and we are in this position as a result of it.

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