The Irish Veterinary Association has rejected criticisms that it is pushing self-interest by setting up the Veterinary Certified Food Assurance Board to run the food quality assurance scheme. The board will train its vets to audit farming practice so consumers will have guarantees that the food they are eating is being produced to the highest possible level of welfare and husbandry.
A statement read to the a.g.m. on Friday said Irish commentators had criticised the British government's failure to avert the BSE crisis because industrial and political pressure overruled scientific considerations aimed at protecting public health.
"However valid this criticism may be, hindsight also amply demonstrates that many past Irish decisions concerning public health have favoured short-term political/commercial expediency over the country's long-term interest," it said.
"Regulatory authorities, often operating within a political framework, can find it difficult to follow scientific principles. This is especially true when to do so would risk unpopularity with either powerful lobby groups or with manipulated public perception," it added.
The statement said the inherent complexities of science cannot be contained within a "soundbite" or headline and cannot succeed against well-financed populist public relations campaigns often orchestrated by those who either overtly or covertly benefit from the political system.
"In Irish agriculture many such populist strategies have led to short-term benefits for a few wellplaced individuals and organisations. However, the inevitable and far greater long-term losses are currently borne by a greater number of innocent victims.
"Equally, those responsible are protected from prosecution, since they have invariably moved on, either to higher political office, or developed their careers in other and more lucrative spheres.
"Despite the risk of being labelled as another self-interest group, the IVA has always felt it has a duty to represent the role of the veterinary surgeon in terms of the positive contribution they make within their area of expertise."
The statement said that the Veterinary Certified Food Assurance Board will require detailed explanation by the profession to the farm organisations, government and the general public if it is not to suffer the same fate of past veterinary proposals.