THE establishment of a Food Safety Board will reassure consumers that the Government is concerned about hygiene and quality in food. But yesterday's statement from the Department of Health leaves many important questions unanswered.

The precise powers of the new board are still unclear, and the Minister, Mr Noonan, did not help when he cancelled a press conference at which such matters might have been aired. At the same time, a rearguard action appeared to be under way at the Department of Agriculture against any encroachment by the consumer lobby.

With the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, away in Luxembourg, it "was thought politic to await his return before final powers were allocated. As a consequence, Mr Noonan only sought Cabinet permission to proceed with the Heads of a Bill.

The timing of the Government decision was curious for another reason. It came within 24 hours of Fianna Fail's planned publication of a food safety policy.

The Government's initiative is "a joke", Fianna Fail's agriculture spokesman, Mr Brian Cowen, said last night. "Putting the Food Safety Advisory Board on a statutory basis is the equivalent of putting on the amplification in a talking shop" he said.

A Government spokesman confirmed that the Department of Agriculture would retain responsibility for monitoring and regulating the food industry at farm and factory level. Health boards, the Departments of the Environment and the Marine and other agencies would also implement the various EU directives on food.

But the new Food Safety Board would police these regulatory authorities.

Senator John Dardis of the Progressive Democrats was underwhelmed by the Government's initiative. It was only "policing the policemen". He asked: "Who has been ensuring compliance with these EU food standards to date?"

In spite of blanket suspicion from the opposition parties, the Consumers' Association of Ireland (CAI) welcomed the development and said it would seek to influence the nature of the legislation and secure representation on the board. It had demanded an independent body for years and was pleased that action had finally been taken in reaction to consumer demands.

The IFA appeared to be in the throes of a Pauline conversion. Mrs John Donnelly urged farmers to cooperate fully with the new body which, he said, "must be fully independent of all vested interests".

The magnitude of the task facing the new board is obvious to anyone with a passing knowledge of farming practices. The culture of voluntary blindness which has infected the "Department of Farmers" for years - in the national interest must be challenged.

At various stages, eyes were closed to abuses within the beef industry to the use of growth hormones to the gross misuse of antibiotics in pig and animal rearing and to the overuse of pesticides. The list goes on.

The last time the question of consumer interests arose in the agrisphere was when Bord Bia was established about a year ago. At that time, the Department of Agriculture steamrolled all opposition and grabbed the plum new agency. Producers and processors ruled OK.

The extent of their control was starkly illustrated by a departmental comment concerning excessive anti biotic residues in pig meat. Department inspectors had earlier reported the problem, but no action was taken until a survey by the CAI last weekend showed that Irish pork contained the highest level of antibiotic residues in Europe.

"If we had gone blazing guns on this, we would have been accused of sabotaging a £200 million industry", the spokesman explained. There was no question of preventing farmers from buying antibiotics in bulk, or of allowing such medicines to be administered only by prescription, as happens with humans.

People who question the safety of Irish beef because of hormone abuse, or because of BSE and a possible link with CJD, are made aware that the well being of a £1.7 billion industry is at stake. It will be difficult for any new board to withstand that kind of pressure.

In fact, this whole idea of a Food Safety Board arose from the wreckage created by the British government's handling of the BSE crisis last March. As beef consumption collapsed across Europe, and 40 per cent of Irish consumers stopped eating red meat, the Government appointed a special inter departmental committee to examine what could be done to reassure the public that beef was safe to eat.

The officials decided that a toothless watchdog - the Food Safety Advisory Board - would have to go, to be replaced by a statutory body with powers. But as the BSE crisis waned, the urgency went out of the issue.

Until last month, that is, when the Russian beef deal and the rising incidence of BSE put the issue back on the Cabinet's agenda. A plethora of court cases over the misuse of angel dust and reports of antibiotic residues in pork put the issue centre stage.

Given the genesis of the new board and the intention of the Government to protect the beef industry through the reassurance of consumers - people will judge the new agency by the fruit it bears.