Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 669: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, further to Parliamentary Question No. 124 of 16 December 2004, the progress to date on the inspection regime under the metrology law; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25140/05]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is aware that an agreement was reached some time ago with meat industry representatives and the Department of Agriculture and Food on the requirements that must be met to facilitate the testing of weighing instruments by the Legal Metrology Service, LMS. The LMS has advised me that it does not have the facilities or personnel to deal with the haulage of test equipment to and from the meat plants and therefore it intends to engage private hauliers to provide this service where necessary. The proposal to engage private hauliers minimises the safety risks for staff and enables compliance to be verified in an efficient manner.

While the LMS expected that a resumption of the inspection regime would occur in the early part of 2005, discussions with staff representatives, aimed at addressing concerns that the proposal represents a privatisation of part of the verification/inspection process, are ongoing. While it is not possible to predict how long these discussions may continue, the LMS hopes to bring the negotiations to a conclusion shortly with the objective of a full resumption of inspections throughout the industry. While I have requested the LMS to ensure that the negotiation process is expedited, limited inspections of meat processing plants are, however, continuing.