Sir, - The officers and members of the Local Authority Veterinary Service within Veterinary Ireland wish to congratulate Fintan O'Toole on his recent article, "Unnecessary demise of the local butcher" (Opinion, April 3rd).
As local authority veterinary officers working in close association with local butchers who supply locally sourced meat, we have watched the standards and practices of local abattoirs over the past 10 years develop and grow to an excellent degree.
As Mr O'Toole pointed out, over 400 local abattoirs have closed down in that period, and the success of the others is due to the hard work, dedication and money that the individual abattoir owners have put into their trade. In most cases, the level of spending could not be justified by income, but pride and tradition still play a part in rural Ireland.
Local abattoirs for the most part buy young heifers from local farmers, who know the butcher's preference, who in turn knows his customers' preferences. The abattoirs have a small throughput, strictly regulated by local authority veterinarians, and are the ideal suppliers for the local market.
Any move to further advance the demise of the local butcher should be vigorously opposed. The trend of EU policy is towards subsidiarity. Killing off local enterprise, especially in something as important as food production, where safety and accountability should be paramount, is against such political aspiration and more importantly, common sense. - Yours, etc.,
John McCarthy, Limerick County Council, John Murphy, South Dublin County Council, Elizabeth McCollum, Carlow County Council.