Pork Contamination Row Rumbles On

The Irish government is to be held responsible for creating last year's pork contamination crisis which forced the withdrawal and destruction of huge amounts of pork products across the entire island.

Yesterday, Michelle Gildernew, Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, and Arlene Foster, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, have welcomed the decisions taken by the Executive Committee on the contaminated feed incident.

Speaking after the Executive Committee met, the Ministers said: "The contaminated feed incident has caused significant problems for the local agri-food industry with costs to both producers and processors.

"The Executive has decided to continue to press strongly for the Irish Government to accept that Northern Ireland producers and processors should have access to the Southern compensation scheme.

"In the meantime the Executive has agreed to introduce a cull and disposal scheme to remove and dispose of animals in restricted herds which cannot enter the food chain," they said, explaining that, under this scheme the Executive will only meet the costs of slaughter and rendering of these animals.

"It is likely this scheme will cost in the region of £3-4million. We believe that this approach will ensure that the animals do not enter the food chain, will protect the reputation of the industry and help deal with the welfare and management problems which the owners of the animals are facing," continued the MLAs.

"This scheme is subject to the implementation details being worked out in conjunction with stakeholders. We have asked our officials to take this forward urgently," they said.

In December, police in Northern Ireland helped gardaí investigate apparent contamination of animal feed which sparked a major health alert over Irish pork products - and later cast a shadow over beef products too.

High PCB levels of dioxins discovered in pigs suggested that the type of oil used in a burner at the facility at the centre of the crisis in Co Carlow - which converts food products into animal feed was "inappropriate".

See: Tyrone Link In PCB Contamination Probed

(BMcC/JM)