Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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497. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the guarantees he will provide that imported food products meet the same environmental, welfare, and safety standards required of Irish farmers, ensuring a level playing field; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4599/25]

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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The European Single Market is based on the concept of a single set of rules applying to the production of food, so that food placed on the European Market, be that within a Member State, traded between Member States, imported into the European Union, or exported from the European Union, meets EU requirements to protect food safety, animal and plant health, and animal welfare standards, within the European Union.

To ensure consistency in application of requirements, rules are laid down in a series of European Regulations, both delegated and implementing acts. European regulations apply directly in Member States and they place legal responsibilities on business operators that apply from the date of implementation of the regulation.

To ensure compliance with these requirements in Ireland, my Department operates four border control posts at Dublin Airport, Dublin Port, Rosslare EuroPort and Shannon Airport where consignments undergo documentary, identity, and physical inspections to confirm that they are in compliance with EU legislation. Consignments found not to comply with these requirements are rejected and are either destroyed or re-exported to the country of origin, in compliance with rules laid down in Regulation 2017/625.

In 2024, my officials carried out a total of 69,590 import controls across our four BCPs with 86% of these undertaken at Dublin Port. Reflecting that most of the consignments were imported from GB, a country only recently departed from the EU and thereby familiar with EU standards, the overall levels of non-compliance detected at our BCPs was low (<0.5%).