Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 1014: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food when she intends to introduce country of origin food labelling within the catering trade; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1765/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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An enabling provision to allow for the extension of our comprehensive beef labelling regulations to require operators in the hotel, restaurant and catering sectors to provide country of origin information to their customers on the beef they serve is at present before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Committee Stage of the Bill is due to be debated tomorrow.

The Department is well advanced in drafting the necessary beef regulations and is currently in consultation with the Department of Health and Children and the FSAI on the details including enforcement. While the regulations will then need to be submitted for EU approval, it is hoped that this process will not delay the making of the final regulations. In the meantime, the representative bodies for hotels, restaurants and pubs have agreed to recommend to their members to provide the information on a voluntary basis.

I have also written to the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection requesting that consideration be given to extending the rules on country of origin labelling at EU level. I had raised the matter in the Agriculture and Fisheries Council some months ago. If this matter is not satisfactorily progressed at EU level, I intend to bring forward proposals to extend the information that will be available to consumers here, on the origin of all meat they purchase. The proposed enabling legislation currently before the House will facilitate such a development. However, all the regulations that would be necessary will be subject to EU approval.