Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 103: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the position regarding chicken that is being imported from EU counties and relabelled as Irish chicken; if this is happening at present; if so, her plans regarding same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33594/05]

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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The labelling of poultry meat within the European Union is regulated by a number of legislative instruments. First, all pre-packaged food, including pre-packaged poultry meat, must adhere to the general labelling requirements of Council Directive 2000/13/EC, as amended. According to these rules, origin labelling is not normally required for packaged food unless its absence misleads the consumer. Therefore, pre-packaged poultry meat such as chicken breasts do not have to indicate their origin. However, where other particulars on the label might mislead the consumer as to the true origin or provenance or the food, such as a flag or a map other than that of the country of origin, the true country of origin must be clearly declared.

The principal aim of this legislation is to inform the consumer of the properties of the food being purchased and to enable consumers to make informed choices. It is therefore an offence under Council Directive 2000/13/EC, both to indicate on the label the origin other than the true origin of chicken meat and to mislead the consumer as to the true origin of the food. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has overall responsibility for the enforcement of food labelling legislation in Ireland. The statutory agencies currently enforcing this legislation under service contract to the FSAI are the Department of Agriculture and Food, the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, the Health Service Executive, local authorities and the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs.

In accordance with Council Regulation (EEC) No. 2913/92 establishing the Community customs code, any goods — including food — whose production involves more than one country shall be deemed to originate in the country where they last underwent substantial processing. Thus, for example, imported poultry meat which is imported into Ireland and further processed into chicken pie here, may be labelled as a product of Ireland. The European Commission is currently reviewing the horizontal labelling legislation in order to recast and modernise its provisions. The Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs commissioned a report on the evaluation of food labelling legislation, one of the recommendations of which is to investigate the extension of mandatory origin labelling to other meats in addition to beef, as well as to consider the type of indication of origin required by consumers, for example, the place of production, slaughter and so on.

My Department would welcome mandatory rules requiring details of origin to be given on the label of poultry meat and this would be in line with the report of the food labelling group established by the Minister for Agriculture and Food in 2002. One of the recommendations of that report was that information on the origin of fresh, chilled and frozen sheep meat, pig meat and poultry meat, sold in retail outlets, pre-packaged or otherwise, should be declared. Informal discussions between the Commission and member states on the recasting of the labelling legislation have commenced and a Commission proposal is expected in 2006.