Minister corrects Dáil record on timeline of hand sanitiser controversy

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has corrected the timeline he gave to the Dáil in relation to the discovery of defective hand sanitiser which had been supplied to schools.

Mr McConalogue told the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture initial results of tests on the hand sanitiser which showed excess levels of methanol, were noted on October 6th last, two days before the October 8th date he has previously given to the Dáil.

Outlining the history of the discovery and the recall of the hand sanitiser ViraPro, Mr McConalogue said the first warning had come from the European anti-fraud office (Olaf). It had told the Revenue Commissioners that samples from the Turkish based supplier had been analysed in Denmark and found to contain methanol instead of ethanol.

He said following the tip-off “all consignments that were tested were detained pending results of laboratory analysis”.

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He said: “Indicative results were received on September 6th and I wish chairman to take this opportunity to correct one point in my statement of October 23rd to Dáil Éireann. When using information which was provided to me at the time, I stated that the results had been received on October 8th, when in fact preliminary results were received on October 6th.

“Following receipt of these results my department informed the HSE of initial concerns about the safety of a detained consignment of sanitiser.”

Mr McConalogue said confirmatory results were received on October 16th, and these confirmed that the composition of the registered product “was not consistent with the approved specification”.

A compliance notice to recall the product from the market and from public use was issued to the supplier the same day, Friday 16th October and the product was removed from the official register of biocides on Tuesday 20th October, the minister said. The Department of Health was also contacted the same day.

On October 22nd the Department of Agriculture issued formal notification to the Department of Education and HSE, and apprised the Department of Children while also issuing a public statement on the possible risks posed by ViraPro.

Mr McConalogue told the committee “I was advised of the issue that evening.”

The Minister also revealed the department has had difficulty in securing the full cooperation of the Turkish supplier in the recall.

“Since affected ViraPro sanitiser was removed from the national biocides register in October, my Department has been proactively engaging with the supplier to ensure that its instructions to recall product are complied with in full and that no further sanitiser product from the original Turkish supplier is placed on the market,” he said.

“The responsibility for the withdrawal of products rests with the company concerned. It had become clear by October 22nd that the recall of products had not yet commenced.”

While officials in the department’s Pesticide Controls Division continue “to engage actively” with the supplier, the company demonstrated only “some compliance” he said. Further deadlines of October 28th and most recently November 12th “for a full and verified recall of affected ViraPro” sanitiser products “have not been met to my department’s satisfaction”, Mr McConalogue told the committee.

However, in response to questions from the committee Mr McConalogue said he was “happy to report that no safety issues have been found with any of the products checked”.