Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Question 642: To ask the Minister for Health the contact he has had with his European counterparts in relation to the mutant E-coli outbreak, which has caused numerous deaths and serious illness in Germany; the role he will play in preventing the spread of the bacteria here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15062/11]

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Ireland was represented by the Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU and by the Health Attaché at the EPSCO Health Council in Luxembourg on 6 June, at which the E-coli outbreak was discussed. Commissioner Dalli provided an update on the situation and reported that the Commission was in daily communication with food safety and public health authorities and outlined that a priority was to identify the source of the contamination. The importance of strong coordination at EU level was also stressed. Member States expressed solidarity with Germany and the other countries affected by the outbreak. There was a call for better coordination of messages to the public. The importance of basing alert statements on evidence was stressed though it was acknowledged that it is not always easy to choose between acting as soon as possible, at the risk of spreading mistaken information, or waiting to have reliable information before taking action, at the risk of seeing the epidemic spread still further. There was also an extraordinary meeting of Agriculture Council on 7 June which dealt exclusively with the E-coli situation.

The recent E-coli outbreak in Germany continues to be the subject of meetings between the food control authorities in all the EU Member States including the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the European Commission and the World Health Organisation Office for Europe. These meetings have been taking place on an almost daily basis since the outbreak was declared. In addition detailed information is circulated through the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, for which the FSAI is the national contact point in Ireland.

An important aspect of this outbreak is that those who were ill or tragically died were in Germany or had a history of recent travel to Germany. There have been no cases in Ireland and the specific strain of E-coli has not been found here. The problem was clearly one relating to contamination of food in Germany and this has since been confirmed by the Authorities in Germany, who have traced the contamination to a local producer of organic sprouted seeds, and linked consumption of those sprouts to those who fell ill. Laboratory tests have since isolated the outbreak strain of E. coli (VTEC) O104:H4 in the sprouts from the implicated local producer. The implicated production plant is now closed and none of the organic seed sprouts from this plant were exported from Germany.

The FSAI are providing regular briefings to my Department and are providing public information on its website and are dealing with numerous queries from the print press and other media. I am satisfied that they have managed the incident and are continuing to do so in an effective and proportionate manner.

The FSAI are continuing to monitor the situation and will provide updates to my Department as necessary.