Concern that curbs in public expenditure could damage food safety controls has been expressed by the chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Dr Patrick Wall.
The current round of inspection contracts signed between the FSAI and the 46 agencies covering 2,400 staff in the State are due to expire at the end of this month.
Dr Wall said his main concern was that if there were to be cutbacks in local authorities and health board budgets, Ireland might revert back to a "two-tier system", where food for domestic consumers might not receive the same protection as food being prepared for export.
Prior to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland putting an overall inspection system in place, 10 local authorities did not employ veterinary inspectors to supervise meat production.
Writing in the current edition of FSAI News, Dr Wall said that within Ireland, it had never been a more crucial time for consistent food safety enforcement and supervision.
He said that while food safety was a core activity in some of the 46 agencies operating contracts for the FSAI, it was a fringe activity in some others competing for scarce resources.
Asked to elaborate, Dr Wall said local authorities had to look after public water supplies, waste management and food safety and that these public health issues should be given priority over other issues.
"The 10 health boards have to supervise over 37,000 food premises ... and the local authorities have a total of 590 premises, abattoirs and small meat plants to inspect," he said.
"The resource issue is now at the top of the agenda with agencies involved in food safety, and I believe that it is important that Irish consumers receive the same degree of protection as consumers of Irish food abroad," he said.
Last year, he said, the health boards had the responsibility of inspecting about 95 per cent of all food businesses in the country.
"Infringements of food legislation were noted in 42 per cent of the premises inspected, about 14,000 premises," he said.
"While most infringements were minor and were dealt with by written or verbal warnings, more serious breaches resulted in legal action under the relevant legislation under the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act," he added.
Dr Wall said as the food chain was becoming more complex, with liberalisation of trade creating more stages in the food chain, the possibility of things going wrong increased.
"What we are attempting to do in the FSAI is to create a team approach and become an umbrella under which the agencies can group for a virtual network to share knowledge and expertise," he said.
He said inconsistent approaches to enforcement, both between and within agencies, diluted the credibility of enforcement agencies in the eyes of the food industry and the consumer.