Opposition parties today welcomed the €180 million deal to rescue pork producers affected by the contamination scare but warned the episode raised serious questions about the monitoring systems in place at the Department of Agriculture.
Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Michael Creed said the "whole sorry saga highlighted multiple system failures all of which trace back to the Department of Agriculture".
Mr Creed said significant questions concerning traceability, the monitoring of licensed premises and the proportionality of the response to the original contamination needed to be answered by the Minister for Agriculture and the Government.
Labour’s Sean Sherlock said that while the return of Irish pork and bacon products to supermarkets and butcher shops was a welcome development, many workers will have lost as much as a week’s earnings as a result of the turmoil of recent days, and they must be included in any compensation package.
Trade union Siptu today called off a protest by pig industry workers, laid-off due to the contamination scare, following the announcement of the deal. The union said the priority now was to ensure the return to work of employees as quickly as possible.
The Irish Association of Pigmeat Processors director Cormac Healy said the agreement was essential for the pigmeat industry's immediate survival and ongoing viability in the face of the losses arising from the product recall.
“This has been the single biggest crisis ever faced by the Irish pigmeat sector. Companies look forward to a resumption of slaughtering and processing immediately," he said.
Isme, the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association, called on the Government to establish for an independent investigation into the handling of the pork industry crisis by the State agencies and departments involved.
"Questions must be answered on the professional effectiveness of the public sector monitoring in this area and why it took three months to reach a conclusion which, in hindsight, seemed excessive in the extreme, in the light of the European Food Safety Authority benign assessment," Isme chief executive Mark Fielding said.
