Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last night the Minister informed me that since 2014, 38 beef grading machines had been found in unannounced inspections by Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine officials to be outside the legal tolerance limit of a mere 60% accuracy. To put it in plain English, on 38 occasions the grading machines were getting the grades wrong for more than four out of every ten animals that were being graded. The mechanical grading machines in use in beef plants across the country today were first trialled and tested over 20 years ago. The fact is that technology has come a long way since. At the time the machines were first tested, if we wanted to look something up, we had to look at an encyclopaedia. We do not need one today. The incorrect grading is having a significant impact on the payments received by farmers. The Minister must justify why Northern Ireland rules for the exact same grading machines require them to be checked every day but for grading machines in the Republic of Ireland reports are only produced on a weekly basis. Why is it that grading machines have only to be 60% accurate when they could easily be more than 90% accurate? There is a need for new grading machines and we need new rules to operate them that will be enforced by departmental officials to ensure they will not be exploited and that farmers will also not be exploited.

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