Eurolink News

Return of the rasher (11/12/08)

December 11, 2008 at 8:38 pm Leave a comment

As the dust settles on the recent meat crisis with beef and bacon back on shop shelves, analysis is continuing into the impact of the food scare and how it was dealt with at national and European level. Although the EU initially refused to pay compensation to the pig industry for losses incurred from the recall of pork products, the European Commission finally came up trumps with an offer of €15 million in aid for the sector, a proposal that was unanimously backed by all member states. The aid will come in the form of a mechanism called ‘aid for private storage’, or APS, which allows products to be taken off the shelf for up to six months, and later re-sold when the market recovers.
Back home however, the government has come under fire for its handling of the crisis. Fine Gael MEPs Mairead McGuinness and Avril Doyle launched blistering attacks on what they say was the failure of the Agriculture Minister to put a plan in place to swiftly to manage the fallout from the food scare. ‘Getting safe products back on the shelves within hours was vital to the survival of the industry, but this did not happen,’ said Ms McGuinness. Avril Doyle asked, ‘How is it, that with only six per cent of all pig farms implicated with contaminated feed, Irish slaughter houses could not identify the pigs from these farms? This would have avoided the 100 per cent withdrawal of pig products, and the considerable damage done to the reputation of Irish produce at home and abroad.’
Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has pledged to carry out a full investigation into how contaminated meal was given to pigs, sparking what Fine Gael has described as ‘an entirely preventable multiple systems breakdown’.

Entry filed under: Agriculture and the EU, Aid and the EU, Animals and the EU, Consumers and the EU. Tags: .