Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 426: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food his views on the competence of the role of the veterinary profession in the control of animal disease and the certification of livestock and livestock products. [33380/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The veterinary profession has my full confidence and support. The profession plays a pivotal role in the development of our agriculture and food sectors and its members expertise and commitment in the area of animal diseases has enabled our livestock sector to progress and improve and, by so doing, to provide a safe raw material for our developing food industry. With developments in the area of veterinary medicine and treatment techniques, considerable progress has been made in combating a range of animal diseases which otherwise would threaten the stable food supply we now take for granted.

While veterinary practice had traditionally concentrated on the management of livestock production diseases at farm level, the Department's veterinary inspectorate working as an integral part of my Department, has a far wider remit. It focuses on zoonotic diseases of public health significance, contingency planning for serious disease outbreaks and the protection of the animal feed and human food chains. In more recent years, food safety, trade and animal welfare have also become extremely important issues. Official Veterinarians now fulfil a pivotal role in carrying out inspection and certification functions at various stages in the food chain to verify both the standard of animals entering the chain and the standards of the processing operations. The inspectorate also plays a major role in international trade for example in determining trade rules at OIE and at bilateral levels and in reassuring foreign regulators and consumers of our high animal health standing through certification functions and otherwise.

Furthermore, the Veterinary Council of Ireland (the regulatory body of the veterinary profession) of which my Chief Veterinary Officer is a member, and the new Veterinary Practices Act 2005, polices the profession in Ireland to ensure the highest levels of professionalism and integrity are met.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 427: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will support a matter (details supplied). [33381/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of the AHCS1 form is to permit testing veterinary practitioners to manually submit amendments to test details that have already been submitted electronically. These corrections generally relate to matters such as the sex, breed, colour, ID number of animals, as well as herd identifier, date and details of test results. The acceptance of submitted corrections on the AHCS 1 forms is at the discretion of the Superintending Veterinary Inspector (SVI) in my Department's local District Veterinary Office (DVO) and the use of AHCS1 forms is monitored as part of my Department's quality control system on the testing programme.

My Department is satisfied that this highly-visible and transparent process does not facilitate the certification of animals as being tested when they had not in fact been tested. Up to 30 September 2008, some 6,900 AHCS1 forms were submitted to DVOs this year by testing veterinary practitioners. This figure should be seen in the context of 329,715 herd test results recorded on AHCS in the corresponding period. As outlined in my reply to the Deputy of 24 September 2008 (Ref No. 30581/08), my Department has strong and effective quality control measures in place to minimize the risk of fraud and professional misconduct in relation to TB testing. If the Deputy has any evidence of illegal practices in relation to the carrying out of the TB test, perhaps he could provide this information to my Department and the matter will be fully investigated.