Farm at centre of pork scare was not inspected by council
Carlow County Council said the owners of the Millstream plant carried out a self-assessment report on an annual basis, but no inspectors were sent in because it was considered low risk.
An inspection was scheduled for 2008 under the council’s Environmental Inspection Plan, but this was not possible because a number of staff members left the council and resources were focused elsewhere.
It has also emerged the plant did not have a licence to use a waste oil for drying out the feed ingredients which emerged as the source of the contamination which led to €125 million of pork being destroyed, which is now the centre of an investigation by the gardaí and police in the north.
The Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture heard yesterday that the Environmental Protection Agency had recommended the council should inspect the plant once a year. But Carlow county manager Tom Barry told the committee it had no legal responsibility to inspect the plant.
“We haven’t carried out any inspection on the plant since it started,” he said. The fact the Department of Agriculture had not inspected the plant for 18 months before the dioxin scare came to light before Christmas.
Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Michael Creed told the committee: “It is rather an unfortunate coincidence that by early December neither Carlow County Council or the Department of Agriculture had inspected the premises.”
The plan’s permit is up for renewal in the coming weeks, but the council said it will not give a licence until it is satisfied that “everything is appropriate”. There is currently no activity at the plant. Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith told the committee retailers would not be entitled to compensation over the recall.
He said compensation demands made by Tesco were “a bit rich”. He also said pig processing workers who lost wages would not be getting compensation.
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