Protecting Ireland's reputation as a "food island" will require much greater funding from Government, according to the outgoing chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
Speaking at a conference in Kilkenny yesterday, Dr Pat Wall - who announced earlier this month that he is leaving the FSAI after five years at the helm - said health scares had damaged consumer confidence in food.
"BSE put the entire food chain under scrutiny. If you wanted to start panic, BSE was the thing to do it. It is a very sad disease. However, the expected epidemic has not arrived and there are only 115 cases so far.
"In Ireland, the food chain used to be policed by 46 different agencies, all operating completely independently and with little communication between them. There were several government Departments, 33 local authorities and the health boards all involved. This is what the Food Safety Authority of Ireland inherited."
Dr Wall recalled an FSAI success during his tenure. "A ship came into Dublin Port with contaminated dairy meal, which contained dioxins, which we caught. The dioxins concentrate in the fat of milk. Could you imagine if there was a question mark hanging over Baileys or Kerrygold, the impact this would have on the Irish economy. Food exports account for €6 billion annually." The food safety chief - who is qualified as both a veterinary practitioner and a medical doctor - claimed that funding for food safety and consumer protection was scarce, with the authority struggling to pay for its wide-ranging work.
"We are funded under the health umbrella but there is a bit of a dilemma there given the trade dimension to our work." Dr Wall also cited a case where an overflow of sewage in Cork Harbour had resulted in the contamination of oysters, causing illness as far away as Hong Kong. It was the same as the winter vomiting bug in this country. Here is an example of how we exported a problem. The virus circulated in Hong Kong, we call it the winter vomit bug and they call it the Irish bug. This put a big question mark over Irish shellfish."