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Burns: Lessons must be learned from Pork Dioxin Incident

SDLP South Antrim MLA Thomas Burns said the mass contamination of pig feed and products in 2008 must lead to new levels of north-south co-operation on food and animal health.

Tue 16th March

Mr Burns is a member of the Assembly Agriculture Committee. Speaking on a Committee report on the incident, he said: “Contaminated pig feed cost the people of this island hundreds of millions of pounds. It was a severe test of north-south agricultural co-operation, which had worked well in the face of danger in the past. On this occasion we must face the fact that it failed at several levels.

 

“The fact that our Minister learned the true nature of the contamination on the RTÉ news was completely disgraceful. The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in the South has a lot to answer for, but we must rely on our Minister for Agriculture to ensure the timely sharing of information in the future. Some years ago we were able to put a sound cross-border system for animal health control into place. It was a simple recognition of the all-Ireland nature of agriculture. The task for the Minister now must be to extend this approach to all threats to our indigenous food industry.

“DARD must review and overhaul its communication process, and the incident management team must be set up as quickly as possible when a threat emerges. It is they who should assume responsibility for communicating a single, clear and consistent message and for creating an early warning strategy. Furthermore, the number of agencies that are responsible for food safety in Northern Ireland must be streamlined. Too many agencies have their own specific roles and do their own thing.

“There are other lessons to be learned. The aid package that was put together by DARD was simply not good enough. The compensation was nowhere near what was required, and it certainly did not help the beef and dairy sectors or other associated businesses. However, there is still time to review that, and I urge the Minister and the Executive to do so immediately.

“Although no damage was done to public health, there was certainly no happy ending. The extent of the damage to the industry and the fact that the pig sector has struggled to recover are clear evidence of that. Lessons must be learned, and such a badly managed crisis must not be allowed to happen again.”

Thomas Burns

Councillor Thomas Burns

Email thomas.burns@antrim.gov.uk
Tel 07803 535 094

Press Office

Tel 028 90 52 1837

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