Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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242. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the precise role and responsibilities of the NSAI legal metrology service in respect of verifying the accuracy of the weighing equipment used in meat plants and at live export premises-lairages for the weighing of cattle, sheep and pigs for the purpose of purchasing these animals from farmers; the number of checks undertaken across all of the premises for each species of animal over the period 2009 to 2013, inclusive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26580/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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NSAI Legal Metrology Service is responsible for implementation of the Metrology Acts 1980-1996 and related Regulations. It does this through certifying and inspecting measurement instruments and the quantities in pre-packaged products. A wide range of scales, including carcass weighers, platform weighers, bench weighers and animal weighbridges, are subject to legal metrological control when used for trade purposes such as in meat processing plants and marts.

The Metrology Act 1996 and Legal Metrology (General) Regulations 2008, provide that only nationally approved instruments or instruments that have undergone European conformity assessment and bear the CE mark can be used for trade. The primary responsibility for design approval and conformity assessment rests with the manufacturer. The trader is obliged to ensure that only such a measuring instrument is used for trade and that it is correct and verified at all times. Re-verification must be carried out after the instrument has been repaired, re-calibrated or failed inspection. The process of re-verification involves establishing that the instrument complies with regulations, in particular, testing for accuracy against applicable measurement tolerances and the application of tamper evident seals.

In order to ensure sufficient resources are available for traders to keep their instruments in compliance, the Director of Legal Metrology has authorised private operators, subject to specific conditions, under Section 12 of the 1996 Act, to undertake verifications at the request of the instrument owner.

To monitor compliance, NSAI Legal Metrology inspectors, operating out of seven offices countrywide, carry out inspections of measuring instruments at meat processing plant and marts on the basis of risk-based enforcement. Details of visits and inspections undertaken for the years 2009 to 2013 are given in the table. However, records do not differentiate between weighing equipment by species of animal. NSAI continues to review its enforcement strategy on the basis of inspection information allocating resources as necessary to the areas of highest risk. For the present it does not have any major concerns about measuring instruments used for animal weighing.

I also understand from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, that its Officers carry out unannounced checks of weighing equipment in beef abattoirs during routine control inspections concerning beef carcass classification.