Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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As part of the regulatory controls for food safety, there is a State veterinary presence in every meat plant and this veterinarian conducts an ante-mortem inspection on every animal presented for slaughter. In addition, and on a precautionary basis, all specified risk material must be removed from all animals slaughtered and this is also verified by the State veterinarian present in the plant.

No evidence has been found to show that a holding on which an animal with BSE was discovered in the past poses a higher risk to the food chain than a holding that never had a case of BSE.

However, the conditions applied by third countries importing beef from Ireland are determined by control authorities in these countries.