The Irish Times, Tuesday - 17 July 2007 - Minister Coughlan "cannot stand over" IFA claims on Brazilian beef

Minister queries IFA beef claims.

Jamie Smyth in Brussels:-

Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan has said she cannot stand over claims made by the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) that Brazilian beef poses a health risk.

After holding talks with EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou, Ms Coughlan said she accepted the commission's criticism of an IFA report on the Brazilian beef industry.

"I cannot responsibly say there is a health problem. There are issues with traceability and tagging . . . But Brazilian beef is a threat to trade and not a threat to health," Ms Coughlan told journalists in the margins of an EU agriculture ministers meeting.

Her comments came after MEPs and European farm organisations clashed with Mr Kyprianou at a meeting of the European Parliament's agricultural committee.

In a presentation to the committee, the commissioner dismissed allegations levied in the IFA report that Brazilian meat was unsafe to eat as "misleading" and "incorrect".

He also delivered a 26-page critical assessment of the IFA report to MEPs, which noted that the IFA delegation to Brazil that prepared the report did not describe any visits to slaughterhouses, laboratories, official veterinary offices or certifying bodies.

The commission did admit that it has some concerns such as the monitoring of foot-and-mouth disease vaccinations, reduced delays in laboratory testing and delays in the implementation of the electronic cattle-tagging system being used in Brazil. It has warned it could impose a ban by the end of the year if its concerns are not met in time.

In his address to MEPs, IFA president Pádraig Walshe accused Mr Kyprianou of an attempted cover-up of the intolerable risks to EU food safety and animal health.

The IFA claims there is a complete lack of adequate controls on Brazilian ranches and there is widespread use of illegal hormones that is not picked up by the authorities.

Mr Walshe said: "Rather than addressing the problem, the commissioner has used all the resources at his disposal in an attempt to undermine the findings of the IFA mission to Brazil. Commissioner Kyprianou is defending the indefensible."

Most MEPs on the agriculture committee sided with the farming organisations, and agreed to pass a resolution backing calls for an EU ban on meat imports from Brazil.

Fine Gael MEP Mairead McGuinness questioned the commission's decision to take no further action against Brazilian beef imports until December despite having concerns over certain procedures in Brazil.

"The fact of the matter is that Brazilian beef is on sale in Ireland and across the EU while question marks hang over the quality of its production,"

she said.