Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 503: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the number of Government inspections under the EC Egg Marketing Regulations that have been carried out in each county since the coming into force of those regulations; the number of times, possible illegal practices have been detected on foot of these inspections; the action taken to remove the possibility of such possible illegal practices; the number of eggs and the part of the UK from which they have been imported into Ireland during each of the past five years; and if the eggs imported into Ireland from the UK are affected by the ongoing investigation by the UK DEFRA into possible illegal practices in the UK egg industry. [38929/06]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Table 1 sets out the number of inspections carried out and infringements detected in the past five years under the egg marketing standards regulations. The breakdown by county is not immediately available and will be supplied to the Deputy as soon as the information is compiled. Infringements of the regulations are always dealt with by a letter to the relevant operator requiring corrective action as well as, where warranted, the seizure and destruction of eggs and follow-up inspections to check compliance. There is also the legal option of de-registering packing centres.

The CSO is responsible for the collection of statistics in relation to imports of eggs and egg products. Table 2 sets out the details on imports from the UK over the last five years as supplied by that office.

The DEFRA investigation into possible illegal practices in the UK egg industry is still ongoing. The preliminary information available from the investigation does not indicate that the eggs in question moved from the UK to Ireland. One of the issues being investigated by DEFRA is whether some of the eggs in question originated in Ireland and/or Northern Ireland. My Department will be co-operating with the investigation as necessary.