Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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494. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to set out the status of the investigation of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and his Department into elevated polybrominated diphenyl ethers concentrations in milk samples, as outlined in the Environmental Protection Agency 2010 and 2012 dioxin reports on dioxin levels in the Irish environment; if he has identified the source of the contamination and whether milk from the sites affected was allowed into the food chain; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15350/16]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) carries out routine national monitoring for a range of environmental contaminants through measuring the levels in cows’ milk. In addition, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has carried out a number of studies to check for the presence of PBDEs. The results of this monitoring confirm the low levels of such contaminants in the Irish environment.

The EPA also carries out additional testing in areas that might be viewed as areas of potentially higher risk of containing these substances. One of these monitoring samples in a raw milk sample from a farm in Co. Cork showed somewhat elevated levels of PBDEs, though the level was not high by European comparison. The levels found do not constitute a risk for public health.

Notwithstanding this, an inter-agency group of experts from the EPA, the FSAI and my Department was established to investigate the cause of the elevated levels in this case. Following considerable investigation, including a comprehensive testing regime of a number of matrices, including milk, various feed materials, water and other substances in the animal housing, the source of the problem was established. The source was identified as coming from a particular old matting material used as bedding in the cow cubicles in the animal housing on the farm. Accordingly the source of the problem did not have its origins in the surrounding environment.