Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of jobs under threat as a result of the recent horse meat/food safety scandal; and the steps being taken to safeguard jobs in the meat processing sector. [9061/13]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Consumer confidence and trust is critical to preserving and securing employment throughout the Irish beef supply chain, including the processing stage. My chief concern since the beginning of this controversy has been to fully restore consumer confidence in Irish beef products and thereby limit the potential impact of food fraud on employment levels in the processing industry.

The fact that the official control system in Ireland uncovered the fraudulent mislabelling of certain beef products and the manner in which we have addressed the issue demonstrates that Ireland is at the forefront of control regimes. In time and when the issue is fully addressed at EU level, I am confident that our handling of the matter will ultimately enhance the quality reputation of Irish food products.

We have provided decisive leadership on the issue at European level and taken effective action at national level with a view to reassuring consumers and safeguarding employment in the beef supply chain. These additional measures include:

- A positive release programme for horsemeat destined for the food chain to run for an initial period of one month with a subsequent assessment to inform future policy direction;

- A DNA testing protocol agreed with the industry to check beef authenticity, over and above the EU DNA testing programme. I will pursue this issue in Brussels to ensure that a level playing field exists as regards controls applying to EU food production;

- I also intend to pursue at EU level the introduction of a number of changes in relation to labelling regulations, such as provisions covering intermediate labels and reporting of mislabelling incidences, as well as practical steps on the use of security features and more detail on commercial documentation accompanying consignments of beef.

On overseas markets, I requested Bord Bia to work with the industry in explaining the facts of the situation in our beef markets worldwide. Bord Bia commissioned research in the domestic and important export markets to gauge consumer reaction to beef mislabelling and the likely impact on purchasing behaviour regarding processed beef product. The findings showed a high level of awareness of the issue but, despite a significant decline in UK retail sales of frozen burgers in the latest 4-week period up to 17 February, sales of products in this category are expected to recover because of their affordability, convenience and ease of preparation. The surveys also found that international opinion of Irish beef remains positive with little association between adulteration and Irish beef products in particular. Instead, adulteration was seen as affecting European processed beef generally and consequently no decline in volume sales of Irish product in the fresh beef category is anticipated.

To date, apart from some temporary suspensions of operations, one beef processing plant has ceased operating as a result of the recent horsemeat incident. The Department of Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, which maintains an early warning system for redundancies, has not received any information to indicate that the meat processing sector is making staff redundant on a temporary or permanent basis.