Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. Tá fáilte romhat go dtí an Teach. These two issues are likely to have a serious impact on Irish citizens, both producers and consumers. Recent newspaper headlines have stated that 10,000 are to die in a flu epidemic and 50,000 will perish in a pandemic. It is known that bird flu, avian flu, can have catastrophic consequences but those figures are startling. I will return to the subject of avian flu later.

I ask the Minister of State to consider that 100,000 predicted to die by slow strangulation would be a very frightening statistic to see in a newspaper headline but this is the threat facing Irish farmers and particularly beef-producing farmers posed by imports from third world countries, particularly from Brazil. The Irish farmer produces a top quality green product from a clean environment which is traceable from fork to farm and is accepted throughout the world. This has been endangered by exports from South America. Neither I nor my party are against free trade and nor are Irish farmers but we want fair trading conditions.

The standards of the Irish production system are very different to those in Brazil. The Minister of State has assured the House that the beef from these regions of Brazil is traceable but this is not the case. There is no tagging of cattle in Brazil. Of a population of approximately 200 million head of steer in Brazil, the 2004 FVO report on health controls and traceability in Brazil estimates that only 16 million are tagged and they are only tagged 45 days before slaughter. This is not a level playing pitch by an stretch of the imagination.

Brazil has huge ranches probably owned by very wealthy people from Europe or wealthy corporations who are farming and producing this beef on the backs of slave labour. This is another inequality in trade that should not be allowed in Europe and should not be accepted in Brazil either. I join with the farming organisations and my colleagues, who have called for a total ban on Brazilian beef. This is a very serious issue for the consumer, from a health and safety perspective. The beef that comes in from Brazil is riddled with hormones. The use of clenbuterol is permitted and extensive in Brazil. There are no sanctions against its use. In this country, on the other hand, farmers have been imprisoned for using hormones. Again, the playing pitch is not level.

When there was an outbreak of foot and mouth disease here, every section of the community rallied, under the leadership of the then Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh. A tremendous effort was made to hold the disease at bay. People were concerned about the possible impact on the economy and the country and put their shoulders to the wheel in an effort to prevent the disease spreading. In Brazil there are now over 150 confirmed cases of foot and mouth disease but we are allowing the importation of Brazilian beef to continue. This is very serious. We need urgent action and answers to these questions.

The FBO, on the issue of farm registration in Brazil, concluded that there is no link between the data recorded at local level and that recorded in central databases. Brazilian cattle are not tagged, can roam freely, can be transported from one part of the country to another with no restrictions and can mix with other herds. Despite this, we allow Brazilian meat to come into this country. The only answer is a total ban. Why do countries like China, Korea and Japan take the issue so seriously? They have imposed a total ban on imports while we have only banned them from certain regions of Brazil. I have already described our ban as a Mickey Mouse one — it is neither one thing nor the other.

The Minister of State referred to the issue of labelling, which is another disaster and fiasco. Brazilian beef can come into this country, be processed with a mere sprinkling of breadcrumbs, for example, and then become an Irish product. It can then be distributed throughout this country and Europe as Irish beef. This is not good enough for today's consumer is concerned. These beef products present a high risk to human health and consumer well being. We should not allow this to happen. We have beef in this country, masquerading as Irish, that has come from Brazil. We have chicken, masquerading as Irish, that has come from Thailand and we have pork from the United States that is masquerading as Irish pork. We have vegetables from South Africa masquerading as Irish. The same conditions, regulations and intensive scrutiny that Irish producers are subject to, do not apply in Brazil. I call on the Minister of State to impose an outright ban on these products.

If people do not believe my assertion that beef from Brazil is masquerading as Irish beef, they only have to speak to the Irish Farmers Association. The IFA did a survey on beef. It had DNA tests done on beef samples which proved conclusively that Brazilian beef was being served in restaurants and hotels in Dublin but was labelled as Irish beef. This is not good enough nor is it acceptable.

Irish farmers are very concerned about the environment and health. The same concern does not exist in Brazil. There are no restrictions on the diet of cattle, which can be fed anything. Nitrates directives do not apply in Brazil and there are no proposals to introduce prescription-only medicines for cattle. If an Irish calf has ring worm, a farmer cannot go into a chemist to buy an antibiotic to treat the animal. If I have ringworm myself, I can walk into a pharmacy, pay €5 and use the treatment purchased. However, we take our beef production so seriously that over-the-counter purchase of antibiotics is not allowed and I do not have a problem with that. I have a problem, however, when it is allowed in Brazil and other countries in South America. We need to improve upon that situation.

We also need to improve upon our bio-security arrangements. We need security of supply. If we continue to strangle Irish beef production, as we are doing, we will not have a quality product in this country. We will end up depending on cheap, high-risk imports from Brazil. What happens to our supply if Irish agriculture is killed off or if dockers go on strike in France or Britain? Where would we get our food from then? We must ensure that there is a safe supply of food here.

We must take immediate action on imports of beef from Brazil. We must stand by our farmers, who were misled by the EU Commissioner, Mr. Franz Fischler, who reformed the Common Agricultural Policy. One of the main selling points for the single farm payment was that it would lead to a cut in production, which, in turn, would lead to an increase in prices. In fact, the direct opposite has happened. There has been a cut in production, but the vacuum has been filled with imports from Brazil, resulting in a drop in prices. Imports of beef from Brazil in 2002 amounted to approximately 350,000 tonnes. This year, so far, 550,000 tonnes of Brazilian beef have flooded the Irish market, with a resulting drop in prices of over €100 per head in the critical months of August and September, when most Irish farmers dispose of their cattle. This situation is very serious. I am calling for an outright ban on beef imports from Brazil and look forward to the Minister of State's response.

On the issue of the avian or bird flu — I have a touch of the flu myself and I hope it is not of the feathered kind——