Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I will use three minutes of my time and give two minutes to my colleague, Deputy Tom Sheahan, our spokesperson on fisheries.

I am grateful to the Ceann Comhairle for accepting this Adjournment matter. It is on foot of a recent court case which saw 42 alleged breaches of the Food Safety Act brought against a well known fish company involving 22 packets of salmon which had been tested. The DNA evidence concluded that they were from farmed fish stock but on a point of law the judge ruled that she could not convict on the basis of the evidence before her. I understand the point of law was that it was not proven beyond doubt that the farmed fish had not escaped into the wild before they were caught, which is a moot point.

The temptation to mislead in this case goes to the wider issue of food labelling. Food labelling has been on the agenda here for the past 12 months, particularly on foot of the pork crisis which proved that more comprehensive food labelling is needed if we are to mitigate against such serious financial, marketing and reputational damage to the country's food industry such as we saw last year. A total of €40 per kilo is the price differential at retail level between farmed salmon versus wild salmon — €16.46 to €55.90. The temptation exists, therefore. This issue arose previously, following on from the pork crisis, regarding hampers that were being sent to America by another Irish company. It transpired that the hampers did not contain any Irish bacon.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has called for changes to food labelling. It has said it encounters many complaints. I know they are not usually to do with the question of wild versus farmed salmon but Ireland has a fantastic reputation for our wild salmon, hence the price of almost €60 per kilo, and anything that throws that reputation into doubt must be stopped. The FSAI stated also that there is a lack of legislation on which to base prosecution.

Agri Aware did a survey last year which indicated that fewer than one in five people in the country was happy with food labelling. A total of 80% considered that our agrifood industry, which includes our fishing industry, had a reputation worth preserving. We discussed this briefly this morning but it must be addressed. The court case findings and ruling by the judge must be analysed to see if we can address this situation to ensure it does not happen again.

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