Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The timeline is very important. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Simon Coveney, has just stated on radio that the Department was first informed on 21 December about the outcome of the tests and then asked by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, to assist it in getting more samples. What interests me is that in December it was clear that there were disturbing outcomes from the tests started in November and that it was considered further tests were required. What informed the decision not to make the results publicly available, if I am correct in my interpretation of what the Minister stated on national radio some minutes ago? Will the Tánaiste explain what informed the decision-making process that resulted in the issue being published only yesterday? If tests were indicating worrying results in terms of the presence of such material in meat, surely the public should have been alerted much earlier. I appreciate that the Tánaiste has stated he will publish the chronology involved, but will he also undertake to ensure all documentation between the FSAI and the Department from the outset will be published and that we will not have to, as we have had to do in other cases, go through the laborious method of using freedom of information requests to ascertain what is vital information in terms of the public interest?

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