Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I will certainly reply as factually as I possibly can. In no way is the purpose of these discussions to erode confidence in the products mentioned by the Deputy. The precautionary principle, which is being applied in the pork and beef situations, is the proper principle to apply in the interests of maintaining confidence in Irish products. A decision was taken on foot of the facts as they had been scientifically established and the advice given by the requisite authorities on the action to be taken. In the case of pork, discussions with processors are continuing as we try to get processing up and running as quickly as possible. It is important that we do that for the industry. We are in discussions with the European Union, obviously. The Minister will talk to the Commissioner, Ms Fischer Boel, at 5 p.m. today.

When I was asked last night to give an update on the discussions with the processing industry, I indicated the areas of the schemes we were talking about. We are discussing how to purchase, how to take the products that have been recalled off the market, how to provide a means by which processors can proceed with their activities and how to deal with the requirement to deal with animals that are still in the restricted units. It is obvious that they will have to be disposed of and there is a need to proceed with that. There is also the question of aids to private storage. That will be a very good marketing support mechanism, obviously. When slaughtering resumes, some stock will have to be put in storage pending the normalisation of the market over the coming weeks and months, which is the fervent hope of the industry. The discussions are ongoing. As I said when I replied to the Deputy's initial question, which contained a sort of definitive suggestion that our request had been turned down, we are in the process of devising the scheme that will form the basis for the discussions between the Commissioner, Ms Fischer Boel, and the Minister. The provision of aids to private storage is an aspect of this matter that should get support.

The Deputy referred to precedent when he raised the possibility of direct aid from the State being regarded as a state aid to the industry during this emergency situation. It is obvious that the EU needs to understand our case. That is the aspect in which the EU needs to be involved. We have also kept it involved from the regulatory point of view as the Deputy has suggested in terms of anything that was coming up.

It is important to point out that from the time when the indicative test of a sample of pork fat, which was routinely taken under the Department's national residue monitoring programme, was found to be positive for the presence of contamination, we have seen the daily work that was taken by the Department as a result of that to the point where we finally had confirmation of the presence of dioxins in pork samples at 3.40 p.m. on Saturday. Everything was done as one would expect. The Deputy will know from previous unfortunate experience we had in the past with BSE, for example, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food is quite expert in this area and its ability to deal with that competently is well understood. I believe the same applies here in respect of the detection taken, the dealing with it comprehensively and in a proper fashion and with the right notifications.

The other point the Deputy made was on what is to be done about restoring confidence in the marketplace. Of course we will do everything we possibly can. If one looks at the pork industry, 50% is for home consumption. Of the other 50%, some 80% goes to the UK. Taking those together, Britain and Ireland represent the ultimate location of 90% of the pork. We will work very hard with the industry and with major customers to provide all the assurance we can, using the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, our attachés in various markets and the Department of Foreign Affairs and our embassies in whatever way we can to ensure there is an accurate understanding by everybody of what has happened.

The reason for the product recall was to avoid a situation where bans would be imposed, which would mean we would be chasing the issue rather than dealing with it, as we are now. That has been welcomed by both colleagues in EU member state governments and people in other parts of the world for the proactive nature of what we have been trying to achieve. It has brought a serious problem for our own industry here in terms of the pork business and the processing business, and we are in the process of trying to deal with that as we speak. Those discussions continue with a view to trying to see if we can bring them to a successful conclusion as quickly as possible.

See this speech in context