Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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280. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the status of the application for protected geographical indication, PGI, status of Irish grass-fed beef; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39110/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, the draft application by Bord Bia for a PGI for Irish Grass Fed Beef was agreed in principle by stakeholders at the last meeting of the Beef Task Force on 22 October.

My Department is currently completing the necessary steps to finalise the application for submission to the European Commission, and I hope that this will happen shortly.

These steps include the assessment of the submissions received in response to the National Opposition Procedure, in line with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 1151/2012. It is expected that responses to those who made submissions will be issued shortly.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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281. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will instruct An Bord Bia to ensure that any PGI status application for beef includes criteria that are applicable on an all-Ireland basis, given recent developments with regard to the PGI application for Irish grass-fed beef; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39111/20]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, the draft application by Bord Bia for a PGI for Irish Grass Fed Beef was agreed in principle by stakeholders at the last meeting of the Beef Task Force on 22 October. My Department is currently completing the necessary steps to finalise the application for submission to the European Commission, and I hope that this will happen shortly.

As the Competent Authority, my Department must be satisfied, in submitting a PGI application to the Commission, that there is a verification system in place to ensure that, if successful, the PGI is protected and that the claims made in a PGI application are verifiable.

The draft application for a PGI for 'Irish Grass Fed Beef' provides that the control systems already in place for the Bord Bia Quality Assurance schemes and Grass Fed Standard will be used to carry out the verification, with no additional requirements for farmers.

In the case of Northern Ireland, there is currently no equivalent verification system in place to verify that qualifying cattle are grass fed.

My Department and Bord Bia have discussed the draft application with Northern Ireland counterparts, and I have discussed with my counterpart Minister Poots also. I have recently advised Minister Poots that, when the final application is being submitted, I will inform the European Commission that Ireland would support the PGI being extended on an all-island basis, when a grass-fed verification system is in place in Northern Ireland.