Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Independent)
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118. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when the agreement to export beef to the United States of America was signed; if he will provide details, and the amount of beef that has been exported to the United States of America under this agreement to date. [18846/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The re- opening of the US market to Irish beef which was announced in January 2015 was achieved following a step-by step process that involved considerable efforts at political, diplomatic and tech nical level over several years. A significant miles t one was reached in June 2014 when the US side sent a team of inspectors to Ireland in order to carry out an equivalence re-instatement audit including visits to 2 Irish beef processing establishments which had applied for approval to export to the US. The final report of this audit was received at the end of December 2014 . Since then, three plants have been approved  by my Department to produce beef for export to the U.S. I am delighted to say that trade has commenced and Irish beef is available in restaurants and supermarkets there. Obviously it takes time to scale up in such a large market but we have significant first-mover advantage by virtue of being the first and only EU member state to have achieved access.

As part of the approval, a veterinary health certificate has been agreed with the U.S. authorities in respect of “beef meat, beef meat products and beef meat by-products”. At present Irish processors have access to the U.S market for “intact beef”, i.e. beef which is not subject to grinding or certain other types of processing which involve breaking the surface are a of the meat after importation, before being marketed in the U.S. such access allows Irish beef processors to target the high value retail and food service end of the US steak market.

Any beef which is subject to grinding or certain other types of processing in the U.S. before being marketed must be treated under the USDA rules applying to “non-intact beef” in the country of origin. My Department is currently engaged in a detailed technical discussion with the U.S authorities in order to extend access to the US to include “non-intact beef” also. It is also working closely with the Irish beef plants as part of this process.

I am satisfied that we are making significant progress and am hopeful that access can be extended to these additional lower value beef products in the near future.