John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. What I have to say will not be greatly different from what previous speakers have said. I happened to be in London over the weekend and received a few messages about what happened on Saturday. British television coverage of the story was the most appalling advertisement for Irish food that one could imagine. Every hour on the hour, the first item on Sky News was about Irish pork products being withdrawn from shelves across the world. It was presented in a sensationalist way as an immediate threat to health because it claimed that all Irish pork products were affected. It will be difficult to convince shoppers that it is safe to buy Irish pork products in the future. It will require a lot of investment and effort by those charged with that task. I sincerely wish them the best of luck in that regard.

The incident raises a few puzzling questions. I emphatically disagree with those on the other side of the House who have spoken about the Government's fast reaction. I have read in a number of publications that questions were raised about dioxin contamination of Irish pork last September by a Dutch gelatin producer. That information was passed at the time to the relevant Irish authorities. The Dutch producer was able to narrow down the inputs and test them. He found that there was a problem with his Irish inputs and this information was passed to some of the relevant authorities here. It seems, however, that no action was taken. I may be wrong and it may be one of those stories one hears——