Assuming responsibility for Ireland's food safety after three years of turbulence on the food front would be daunting at any time.

To do so in a week when BSE again revealed its notorious unpredictability, and consumers were hit with new, confusing and as yet unquantified risks associated with eating meat, fell on the shoulders of Dr Patrick Wall, Irishman, vet and medical consultant.

Fortunately, he has spent time on the safety front line in Britain where food has become associated with death, because of error, ignorance and some "seeing no evil". He started on Monday. He would have liked to be able to say to Irish people, "There are new concerns about BSE. The risk of getting CJD in Britain is in the order of 600 million to one. The risk in Ireland is . . ." and then provide accurate, extensive information, meet the media and have a helpline in place.

It was not possible because the risk in the Irish context is not quantified. The FSAI will make it possible in future. It was set up by the Government after sustained scares and controversy associated with the meat industry but has yet to get legislative powers, a year after it was announced.

Given the nature of the advice, the Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, had to act, Dr Wall says. "I was pleased he had the guts to come out and take a public health stance. If there's a risk, you come out with it."

Absence of risk analysis and "risk communication" was nonetheless notable. Eating meat is not a risk, eating BSE-infected meat is. "If we were able to distinguish at point of sale that animals had never eaten meat and bonemeal, that they came from a BSE-free herd, if you chose to eat the brains, you could. The problem is we can't.

"So a recommendation had to come out. The Minister was not in a position to tell people what exactly the risk was. He did not have that data. He couldn't win."

A lack of beef risk data is, he says, basically down to the absence of a proper traceability system. If it was in place, "there wouldn't be any need to alarm the public."

He knows many Irish butchers have a quality relationship with their customers and can reassure them. "They know the source of their young animals."

Ireland is ahead of others in improving food safety but with the EU's consumer health protection section establishing its food and veterinary office here, we will need to be seen as an effective model.

A group from the Departments of Health and Agriculture is finalising what functions/powers the FSAI will assume. Significant powers will be taken away from agriculture. But he has no reason to doubt that the radical change envisaged by Fianna Fail before the last election will happen, and all food safety roles will in time come under the FSAI.

Given his track record, it is easy to make a case for headhunting the new chief executive. Dr Wall (42), a native of Dublin, has vital experience in a public health context. He has even worked in an Irish meat factory.

He may be awaiting legislation and enforcement powers, but there is plenty to be going on with, such as education campaigns backed up with an information bank with Internet access. He also intends improving foodborne disease traceability, vital in an era of rapid bug spread.

His most recent role as consultant in charge of gastrointestinal diseases at the British National Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre is pertinent. He wasresponsible for the investigation of outbreaks of food and waterborne disease.

He expects the FSAI to give a balanced view on health aspects of food. He doesn't want "a nanny state" saying you must have your three meals a day. He wants to show people what to expect from food and how to complain in a constructive way.

Where was the FSAI when it was needed this week? It was gearing up towards providing consumers with what they need and will get. There won't be "no comment" to queries, he says, or pandering to the culture that regards the public as "a bunch of gibbering neurotics, only deserving of little bits of information".

After a calm sigh, perhaps in anticipation of inevitable food storms ahead, Dr Wall adds: "It is not a case of switching on a magic light. But it would not be unreasonable to expect the FSAI to be highly visible to consumers from the new year on."