THE Department of Agriculture has been urged by the director of the European Union consumers organisation to publish the results of all food related research.
The Bureau Europe en des Unions de Consommateurs (BEUC) says health surveys of the incidence of antibiotics, hormone residues, salmonella, listeria and pesticide should be made available to the consumer.
Mr Jim Murray, former director of the Office of Consumer Affairs in Ireland and now director of BEUC, made the call at a conference organised by the Dublin Labour MEP, Ms Bernie Malone, yesterday.
Entitled "Can the Consumer and the Farmers be Friends". Are we all getting a fair deal in Europe?" it was addressed by Mr Murray, Mr Jimmy Somers of SIPTU, Mr Michael Slattery of the IFA, Mr Pat Lalor, representing the ICMSA, and the British Labour MEP, Mr Terry Wynn.
Mr Murray suggested the publication of all such reports should happen within the next three months.
Mr Somers, SIPTU's vice president, said agriculture in this country needed "a radical overhaul so that it will be able to demonstrate unequivocally that the day of the `cowboy' is past". He hoped "that the latest crisis sounded the death knell to the first buck mentality that has be devilled the industry".
Mr Murray said that, whereas the announcement by the Government of a new food safety agency was welcome, he felt it should "inter alia, monitor the quality of food in our shops and or our export markets on a continuous basis and publish its results".
He was critical of ministers for agriculture who "for years and years" had been going to Brussels and bringing back something for farmers. "When will we see the day when they bring back something for consumers?" he asked.
Mr Somers said that for a long time the agriculture sector had been "above criticism" in this country, "as if by being the largest and most important sector of our economy, it was entitled to our eternal gratitude". This was no longer the case. Agriculture, forestry and fishing "amounted to only 8 per cent of GDP in 1995" Industry was "more than five times larger".
Considering the degree to which the farming community "is cosseted and supported by public money", he felt "farmer leaders should show a lot more appreciation and gratitude instead of what often comes across as a tunnel vision indifference to everyone else"
He also attacked the Department of Agriculture, which he rechristened "the Department of Farming" and described as "the downtown office of the IFA".
Later the IFA president, Mr John Donnelly, who was due to speak at the conference but was represented by the vice president, Mr Slattery, said Mr Somers's "outrageous comments" would do nothing for the atmosphere of the current negotiations on a new national agreement.
"I would ask the trade unions to desist from unwarranted attacks on a sector that is suffering huge losses as a result of the BSE crisis," he said.
