Madam, – In a radio interview on RTÉ, Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith refers to annual export sales of pork products worth €365 million and an annual income of €1.1 billion in defending the €180 million fund allocated to the pork industry.
It beggars belief how a five-day ban on sales of pork could have cost the industry six months’ worth of exports or almost two months’ worth of total sales.
With a payout equivalent to almost €28,000 per person employed in the industry, the pigmeat processors’ association and the IFA must be on the pig’s back after securing this deal. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The most enlightening and frightening aspect of the recent pork scare to me has been the amount of foreign pork products on sale in Ireland.
Many restaurants have been immediately able to tag “Dutch” on their bacon and pork dishes, and plenty of shops quickly displayed signs that show pork products from very Irish-sounding processors are not being recalled as they are not Irish.
I, like many consumers, am astounded to realise that what I believed was Irish bacon and pork was actually foreign.
If any good is to come out of the recent scare, let it be that meat products are clearly labelled to show whether they are Irish or not. I would never willingly buy foreign meat products,
I believe Irish food is safer, cleaner and better. I want to see clear and large “Irish” on genuine Irish meat products. Anything less is attempting to dupe consumers. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – A mere two weeks ago, the Government was telling all and sundry that its coffers were empty – it didn’t have a sausage. So where did it find the €180 million euro to compensate those involved in the “beleaguered” pig industry? Try as I may, I just can’t rid my head of those two nouns “pork” and “barrel”. – Yours, etc,