Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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330. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the number of meat plants inspected by the legal metrology service in each of the years 2016 to 2018; the date each plant was inspected; the breaches that were found; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6634/19]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) Legal Metrology Service is responsible for the implementation of the Metrology Acts 1980-1996 and related Regulations. It does this through certifying and inspecting measurement instruments and the quantities of pre-packaged products. A wide range of measuring instruments, including weighing instruments used in meat plants, are subject to legal metrological control when used for trade purposes.

The Metrology Act 1996 and associated Regulations 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.

In order to ensure sufficient resources are available for traders to keep their instruments in compliance, NSAI Legal Metrology has authorised private operators, under section 12 of the Metrology Act 1996 and subject to specific conditions, 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 at meat plants on the basis of risk-based enforcement.

During 2016, 2017 and 2018, Legal Metrology did not receive any complaints in relation to the suspected use of non-compliant weighing instruments used for trade purposes in meat plants.

Inspections will be ongoing in this sector throughout 2019.

2018 Meat Plant Visits

Table 1.2018 Visit Dates & Locations

49 meat plants were visited by Legal Metrology Inspectors during 2018 with the following instrument types inspected: weighbridge, platform scales, bench scales and overhead tracks. Of the 327 instruments inspected, 74 failed (an instrument may have more than one failure), and two were removed from trade use as they were operating outside the legal tolerance and did not re-enter trade use until the non-compliance was addressed by an NSAI Authorised Verifier. The remaining failures were considered minor and the instruments were allowed to remain in trade use for up to 20 days, during which time the non-compliance was addressed by an Authorised Verifier

Table 2.2018 Detected Non-Compliance

2017 Meat Plant Visits

Table 3.2017 Visit Dates and Locations

21 meat plants were visited by Legal Metrology Inspectors during 2017 with the following instrument types inspected: weighbridge, platform scales, bench scales and overhead tracks. Of the 93 instruments inspected, 17 failed (an instrument may have more than one failure) and two were removed from trade use as they were operating outside the legal tolerance and did not re-enter trade use until the non-compliance was addressed by an NSAI Authorised Verifier. The remaining failures were considered minor and the instruments were allowed to remain in trade use for up to 20 days, during which time the non-compliance was addressed by an Authorised Verifier.

Table 4.2017 Detected Non-Compliance

2016 Meat Plant Visits

Table 5.2016 Visit Dates & Locations

26 meat plants were visited by Legal Metrology Inspectors during 2016 with the following instrument types inspected: weighbridge, platform scales and overhead tracks. Of the 71 instruments inspected, 15 failed and one was removed from trade use as it was operating outside the legal tolerance and did not re-enter trade use until the non-compliance was addressed by an NSAI Authorised Verifier. The remaining failures were considered minor and the instruments were allowed to remain in trade use for up to 20 days, during which time the non-compliance was addressed by an Authorised Verifier.

Table 6.2016 Detected Non-Compliance