Tim Lombard (Fine Gael)

After the BSE issue in the late 1990s, we moved quickly to make sure we were not just following EU law but became the world leader on the whole issue. In 2013, meat entered the food chain which was not appropriate for it. A decade later, the exact same thing has happened. It is a question of accountability. I am not trying to rewrite history. We know what worked when it came to BSE and what was effective. A system is in place with seven organisations, a vet is needed to register an animal and there is no timeline attached or end-of-life element tied into the database. That becomes an issue, as we saw in the shocking television programme. where it was being abused for monetary gain.

I welcome that Professor Pat Wall is involved. He is a competent and capable individual. I wish him well in his task but this is very serious. Confidence in our food industry is up for review now off the back of this issue. We knew in 2019 that there was cloning of microchips. What has been done since 2019 to stop that? I got the impression last week that it was a new thing. The reports in these three papers indicate this has been going on and there have been court cases regarding it. What has been done to stop cloning of microchips? Do the witnesses think cloning of microchips is a massive issue in the industry? Will they provide information on that to the committee?