THE DEPARTMENT of Agriculture has questions to answer on the 2008 dioxin scare after publication of the Wall report which found its inspection regime was lacking, Seán Sherlock, Labour’s agriculture spokesman said last night.
Mr Sherlock, who is a member of the Oireachtas agriculture committee, also questioned the timing of the issue of the report at 5pm on Tuesday last as the Dáil session resumed.
He said that the report, which was critical of the department’s inspection regime and Carlow County Council’s role in the dioxin contamination scare which led to a total recall of Irish pork products and a €100 million bill for Irish taxpayers, posed many questions.
He said that the secretary general of the department, Tom Moran and Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith, bore a burden of responsibility because of the finding on inspections.
The report said that the “department failed to verify that the animal feed operator was complying with the legislation in that the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point [HACCP] plan was not fit for purpose, and the inspection of the premises was inadequate”.
It found that the primary responsibility under legislation to produce safe feed and food rests with feed and food business operators and that the operator should have identified the risks associated with the direct drying process in his feed safety management system, based on HACCP principles.
Mr Sherlock said that he had received no answer to a question that he had put to Mr Moran on legislation covering the drying of animal feed when the issue was being examined by the Oireachtas committee on agriculture this time last year.
The report by an inter-agency review group, chaired by Dr Patrick Wall, associate professor of public health at UCD, was uncritical of the actions taken following the discovery of the contamination and supported the total withdrawal of pork products and culling of animals.
It confirmed that contaminated oil from electricity transformers had caused the problem at the feed plant and called on the relevant agencies to urgently review the controls on oils especially waste oil to ensure that adequate systems were put in place by both the industry and the control authorities.
The report also said that appropriate controls on waste oil imported into Ireland for use as fuel should be put in place and if necessary, further legislative measures should be enacted.