Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy will shortly obtain a written response to which he can refer. I agree with him in the context of the outcome he is seeking, namely, restoring credibility and confidence to an industry which has been damaged by what happened during the past six weeks.

That is the reason we are so focused on getting the answers the Deputy is looking for, and I believe we have the independence in the current inquiries to do that. That is the reason the Garda is involved, and it is independent. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI, is also independent. The idea that we would stop the investigation that has been ongoing for six weeks, put some new so-called independent body in charge and start again is crazy thinking.

The Deputy asked why I have taken the lead in this. Like other Ministers in the European Union who are responsible for their food industries, I have taken on responsibility to show initiative and respond with policy changes at a domestic level, as well as to examine the use of DNA testing, which we have now done. We are working independently with the FSAI, which has put in place a new protocol with the food industry to place DNA testing on a more mainstream footing.

On the issue of equine identification and passports, we discussed this issue previously. In case there is any doubt that I have been providing answers on this issue, we spent more than four hours on questions at the committee, and the Deputy was not present for all of that time, although he was for a lot of the meeting.

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