Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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453. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on whether his Department has brought the organic food label into disrepute in view of the findings of the 2017 EU audit of controls on organic food production and the continued application of the organic label to salmon farmed by a company (details supplied) despite the numerous investigations by his Department of licence breaches by that producer and the refusal of his Department to release details of fish mortalities at salmon farms. [3243/18]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The audit undertaken last year by the EU of the controls applied by Ireland in the organic sector was extremely detailed and was one of a series being undertaken in Member States across Europe.

Overall, the audit team concluded that Ireland had a control system in place which laid down a clear division of tasks between competent authority and the various control bodies and made some recommendations for further improvements. It recognised that some of these had already been identified by my own Department as part of its ongoing management of the sector. In fact, the audit team pointed that there were aspects of our management system here in Ireland which could usefully serve as examples for control regimes elsewhere. I am satisfied that the integrity of the organic label in Ireland is fully intact.

As regards the release of information relating to fish mortalities at farms operated by the company named, the initial decision was indeed to refuse the request, in accordance with the applicable legislation which in this case was the Access to Information on the Environment Regulations 2007-2014. I understand that this decision is currently under review following an appeal by the applicant. It would therefore be inappropriate for me to comment further at this stage.