Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 654: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if she has plans to extend beyond 24 months the killing of butcher heifers for sale on the market here. [12048/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I assume that the question relates to raising the age limit for the removal of vertebral column from 24 to 30 months. In July 2007, the then European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection proposed that the age limit for the removal of vertebral column in cattle be increased from 24 months to 30 months.

The proposal received unanimous support at a meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health on 3 October 2007. The proposal is currently under scrutiny by the European Parliament and I expect that the proposal will enter into force later this year.

This increase will be of particular benefit to those butchers who are authorised to handle specific risk material (SRM) and who will then be able to sell beef on the bone from cattle up to 30 months of age and will also benefit those butchers who choose not to handle SRM, and who will be able to take in and sell beef on the bone from cattle up to 30 months of age.