Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 190: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food his views on the inter-agency review group report on the dioxin contamination incident here in December 2006; and if he is satisfied with the role of his Department during this crisis. [3878/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I established the inter-agency review of the dioxin contamination incident for the purpose inter alia of identifying any adjustments to official controls in the light of experiences gained from the incident. The report of the review concluded that once the incident was identified by my Department's residue monitoring programme it was handled well and all actions were proportionate and prompt.

Because of the speed and nature of the actions taken by the Irish public authorities and the industry, public confidence was restored quickly. The report also concluded that, in the management of the incident, the protection of consumer health was rightly the overriding priority. It did however point to weaknesses in the animal feed inspection system. My Department has already addressed these issues in the 2009 Animal feed Inspection programme whereby it assigned a higher risk category to the drying of feed and to grain drying operators placing greater emphasis on the checking of feed safety management plans, based on HACCP principles, which feed business operators are required to draw up and implement reminded operators involved in the drying of grain and feed that only particular fuels (gas, diesel & kerosene) should be used for such drying.

The report makes it very clear that under EU Food and Feed Hygiene legislation the primary responsibility to produce safe feed and food rests with the feed and food business operators. It specifically points out that the feed business operators should have identified the risk associated with the direct drying process in his feed safety management system based on HACCP principle. In this context my Department has reminded feed business operators of their obligation, under the Feed Hygiene Regulations, to take all steps necessary to ensure the safety of the feed chain.

As I indicated when publishing the report I have undertaken to have all the recommendations by the Review Group pursued by the relevant authorities.