Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If the Deputy has evidence of the latter, he should bring it to the appropriate authorities.

Evidence from my chief veterinary officer and staff in the Department is that at these individual plants, everything is being done by management, in conjunction with my Department and the HSE, to deal with these issues.

On the issue of bringing forward payments, we have had discussions with the Taoiseach on these matters but as they currently stand, EU regulations do not permit the bringing forward of payments earlier than 16 October. That may change.

On imports, I know there is a populist element to this in saying that we should not bring in any beef. In an ideal world, we would not bring in any beef, we would eat our own beef and we would send it everywhere else to be eaten. The National Farmers Union in the UK is kicking up about Irish beef on UK supermarket shelves. We export 90% of what we produce. We would be the biggest losers if there were to be a renationalisation. The Deputy is effectively calling for a nationalisation of the Irish market for Irish beef.

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