Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 112: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if, in view of the continuing threat to human health and the economy generally from animal diseases, she will consider the establishment of a permanent bio-security unit to provide maximum protection against threats of this nature; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21789/07]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Within my Department there is a wide range of veterinary, technical, scientific and administrative expertise which is relied upon on a daily basis in the development of contingency and operational plans designed either to minimise the risk of the introduction of various animal diseases to Ireland or to contain, control and eradicate any threatened or confirmed disease outbreak.

In addition, it is a feature of various contingency plans to establish an Expert Advisory Group to provide me with a wider range of advice from various disciplines appropriate to the particular disease outbreak. The membership of such Groups will vary from disease-to-disease depending, for example, on whether there are potential human health issues. Notwithstanding the establishment of Expert Advisory Groups, the responsibility for deciding which contingency or control measures should be introduced is ultimately mine and that of my Department.

The day-to-day management of the threat posed by various disease outbreaks, whether in Britain, Europe or elsewhere, is undertaken by the Management Committee of my Department's National Disease Control Centre. I am entirely satisfied that my Department has, in response to all recent disease outbreak threats, including avian 'flu, Foot and Mouth Disease and Bluetongue, responded appropriately and that the measures put in place were, at all times, proportionate to the assessed level of risk and revised as appropriate, by reference to any reassessment of the risk.

There is, nonetheless, a commitment in the Programme for Government to establish Biosecurity Ireland, as a separate Division within my Department, whose remit will be to 'ensure the exclusion, eradication or effective management of risks posed by diseases and pests to the economy, the environment and to human and animal health.' This will enable my Department to even more effectively coordinate the existing breath of expertise already available. As with all commitments in the Programme, work on its implementation is continuing and I expect that further significant progress will be made in the coming months.