Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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86. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to the fact that carcass beef is being imported into Ireland from the United Kingdom; if so, if he will confirm the quantity that is being imported and if it is being boned and exported as Irish beef; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43560/14]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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In the year to date, 13,473 tonnes of beef has been imported into Ireland from the United Kingdom. In comparison, we have exported 151,755 tonnes of beef to the UK in the same period. Harmonised EU rules require mandatory traceability and origin labelling for beef from slaughterhouse to point of sale to consumers with the objective of providing maximum transparency for the marketing of beef. Compulsory beef labelling requires food business operators to label fresh, frozen or minced beef with specific information to enable the product to be traced back to the animals from which it was derived and must include details of the slaughterhouse and de-boning hall in which the animal was processed as well as the country in which it was born and reared. Beef imported into Ireland for deboning, and subsequently re-exported, must meet the same compulsory labelling requirements.