Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 188: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the progress on the introduction of a voluntary labelling system for meat used in the restaurant and catering sector. [26157/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Traceability and labelling of Irish farm produce is an area accorded priority by my Department. Sophisticated traceability systems for cattle, sheep and pigs have been developed and implemented in recent years. In addition the labelling of foodstuffs was examined by a food labelling group and the main recommendations of that group have been implemented, in particular the centralisation of enforcement of food labelling legislation through the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, FSAI.

In respect of beef, we already have in place a full identification, traceability and labelling system under comprehensive EU regulations. The labelling requirements under those regulations extend up to and including retail level and to the point of delivery into hotels, restaurants and catering establishments.

My next priority in this area is to extend the existing beef labelling laws to require information on the country of origin of beef to be provided to all consumers in the restaurant and catering sectors. I put specific proposals to Government at the end of June for a legislative framework to facilitate this, by way of an amendment to the 1947 Health Act. This will be introduced under the Irish Medicines Board (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2005 which is before the Oireachtas this session. The appropriate regulations are being worked on concurrently and it is my intention to have these cleared at EU level as soon as possible. When the Act is amended and the regulations made, country of origin information will be available to consumers in respect of all beef served in restaurants, hotels and the whole catering sector in Ireland on a mandatory basis.

In the meantime the various representative bodies including the Irish Hotels Federation, the Restaurants Association of Ireland and both of the vintners groups following discussions with my Department, have all agreed to recommend to their members the introduction on a voluntary basis of a mechanism for providing consumers in their premises, with information on the country of origin of the beef served there, in advance of the mandatory legal requirement. This agreement was finalised last week and these organisations are currently at various stages in that process. I expect the voluntary system will be in place in the very near future.

The beef sector has the most developed system of labelling within the EU legislative framework. The next step in meat labelling is to extend the labelling requirements in law for poultry meat, pig meat and sheep meat in order to have similar provisions as those for beef. This is not a straightforward matter and would involve considerable complexities. EU approval would be required and there is no precedent so far for individual member states being allowed to extend meat labelling requirements internally, beyond providing information which is already required in EU laws.