More than 2,000 kilogrammes of illegal food products have been seized at Dublin airport every month since February this year, it has been revealed.
The food hauls come in the wake of last year's foot-and-mouth crisis, and stepped up precautionary measures put in place to prevent the spread of the disease in Ireland.
"Illegal foods" are classed as meat, fish and dairy-based products from all non-EU countries and reports indicate that, in some instances, the products seized between February and June this year were being imported from countries with endemic foot-and-mouth disease.
Mr Michael Walsh, spokesperson at the Department of Agriculture, told ireland.comthat in many countries outside the EU, foot-and-mouth disease is still rampant. He said precautionary measures put in place during the foot-and-mouth crisis here, highlighted the volume of fresh meat products that were arriving into Ireland from such countries.
"From what we saw we decided to keep the measures in place," said Mr Walsh. "Europe is now clear of it and that's the way we want to keep it".
Today the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh signed an order which provides a statutory basis for improved controls at ports and airports in Ireland.
The new order, which comes into immediate effect, provides for a prohibition on personal imports, as well as commercial imports, of animal-based products from non-EU countries.
However, people arriving in Ireland from these countries will still be allowed to carry a maximum of 10 kgs of personal imports of meat, milk and milk-based products from other EU Member States.
Minister Walsh said that his Department's experience over the past 18 months has illustrated that there is a "very real risk" from illegal imports from non-EU countries, which needs to be addressed in the short term.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael's spokesperson on Agriculture and Food Mr Billy Timmins, called on the Government to establish a Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food to question food safety measures. He said he intends to request the European Commission, Food and Veterinary Office to give an overview of its work to the committee, particularly the procedures it has in place to monitor non-EU products.