Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like other speakers, I express serious concern about, and outrage at, the most recent discovery regarding horsemeat. The farming community and the different farming organisations are flabbergasted that this meat is in the country because we have so many exemplary producers. There does not seem to be any logical reason other than pure greed for these burger makers, etc., attempting to use this type of meat. It does not make any sense for them to bring in these trimmings and various meat products from other countries.

Of those who spoke, I liked Senator MacSharry's line of thought on this in that we need to take an EU-wide approach to this. As he said, we have exemplary producers in this country and it does not make any sense for products to be coming in from abroad. It does not make sense for us to say we need to look at our regulations. We need to look at EU regulations. The very fact that this produce was found proves the point that our regulations are second to none and that the EU regulations are being implemented in this country. As Senator MacSharry said, this was not found to be happening in Poland. We need to have better labelling and traceability and to take an EU-wide approach to this. I would appreciate it if the Leader could convey our thoughts to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine so that we might have a debate on this issue as soon as possible.