POLITICAL FALLOUT:URGENT AND decisive action was needed when the presence of dioxins in Irish pork was confirmed, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said yesterday.
Explaining the decision to withdraw all Irish pork products from the shelves, Mr Cowen said that once the positive results come through on Saturday, and the experts had given their advice, his view was that the "action must be immediate and comprehensive and clear".
"I think it's important that we did so in the interest of the consumer and in the interest of public health.
"That is a precautionary principle that had to be put in place. The appropriate action in that respect was taken and we move on now," he said.
The Taoiseach said he had returned to Dublin from his Laois-Offaly constituency on Saturday and was in the Department of Agriculture head office when the laboratory confirmation of contamination was confirmed.
He chaired a meeting attended by Minister for Health Mary Harney, Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith, Minister of State for Food Trevor Sargent as well as senior officials and experts from the respective departments and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
He learned of the result at 4.30pm on Saturday and following a series of meetings, that included farming and food processing interests, the decision to announce a blanket recall of all pork products was made by 7.30pm.
He added that he was confident fresh supplies of pork could be made available within days.
"Obviously we will do all we can to assist everybody in getting fresh and clean product back on display as quickly as possible," he said.
The discovery of the contamination, he said, underlined the effectiveness of procedures in place. "I think it's important to point out that the monitoring that does go on brought about this issue that had to be addressed. Farms had to be locked up. Tests had to be conducted. As soon as the test came back decisions were taken.
"I think it's important that we do that in the interest of the consumer and in the interest of public health," he said.
Mr Cowen was speaking after unveiling a statue commemorating the late singer and entertainer Joe Dolan in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
The Opposition expressed support for the ban but called for further clarification of the source of contamination.
Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness, said: "While the identification of the problem in pig meat products may indicate that the monitoring systems are robust, nonetheless, given that the EU rules had been tightened in relation to animal feed production following the 1999 Belgian dioxin scare, it is difficult to understand, at this stage, how dioxin-like PCBs got into the animal feed system and ultimately into the human food chain."
Strict adherence to the rules should ensure that this does not happen, she said.
"So we need the Department of Agriculture to clarify how the contamination occurred in a licensed animal feed facility."
Fine Gael's agriculture spokesman Michael Creed described it as the biggest threat to the agriculture sector since the foot-and-mouth crisis.
He said householders should be encouraged to seek a refund from retailers and he expressed concern about the situation facing producers.
"The situation now for the pig sector in Ireland is extremely grave and every effort must be made to minimise the impact on pig producers and processors."
Seán Sherlock, Labour's spokesman on agriculture, raised questions about how the outbreak occurred given the stringent rules of traceability that apply in Ireland.
"It appears that pig producers are totally blameless in that they adhered to all licensing rules.
"However, if the Department granted a licence for the production of a feedstuff that is contaminated, then we need to know why that licensee was not investigated sooner, why that licensee was not tested stringently and why it took an exported carcass to highlight this," he said.
