The EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr Franz Fischler, has said the extent of fraud discovered on the Cooley Peninsula during a cull of sheep prompted by the foot-and-mouth crisis was "not acceptable at all".
Speaking to journalists at a food conference in Dublin Castle, the Commissioner said he was surprised at the extent of the fraud. "It is not only a problem in Ireland but we will look at it and see what are the grounds or reasons why it happened and find out, perhaps, if there is a hole in the control system."
Mr Fischler, who was in Dublin with the Irish Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Mr David Byrne, for the Food Industry Information Day, said European taxpayers' interests had to be protected. "It is not acceptable at all that fraud exists and those who take part in such activity should know there are risks of sanctions."
Mr Fischler and Commissioner Byrne, who are promoting a European-wide debate on the future of agriculture and the food industry, concentrated on the need for consumer confidence in the production of food and sustainable agriculture.
On the public's concerns over food safety because of the BSE crisis, Mr Fischler said: "It is not enough for people in my position, or indeed in yours, to make reassuring noises and hope that the problem will go away. We must be able to assure the public that our produce is grown and harvested with care for the crops, the environment and the animals."
This was a continuous process and no one should tire of ensuring the consumer was fairly treated.
Mr Byrne said he and Commissioner Fischler were generating a wide-ranging debate on food quality, food safety and food production, though there were those who would say market forces could do the job better than the Commission could. "It is only both of us, at European Commission level, who can pull all the strands of this diverse debate together. We are here to defend and improve the European agri-model," he said.
"But we are also in the business of assisting in its reform to deliver to all our people what they want. Consumers who want high-quality products at affordable prices, citizens who want environmentally friendly farming, supporting those farmers who truly wish to stay on the land and exporters who desire competitive world prices."
Opening the conference, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, said £282 million would be provided to the industry up to 2006. The funding was expected to help increase food sales by £2 billion, from £10.7 billion in 1999 to £12.7 billion in 2006, by enhancing its competitiveness and innovation, and by paying attention to food safety.
The winners of the Agri Aware Biotechnology Challenge 2001 were announced yesterday, with a team from Presentation De La Salle, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, taking the top award.
Mr Denis Whelan, Ms Fiona Maher, Ms Mary Meaney and Ms Anita Purcell were presented with their award by the US ambassador, Mr Michael Sullivan.
Teams from St John Bosco Community College, Kildysart, Co Clare, and St Macartan's College, Monaghan, were sec ond and third respectively. The competition was supported by The Irish Times, the Department of Education and the US company Monsanto.