Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap & nasty shot on MorningIrel this AM

I was very disappointed with Micheal Creed FG Agri Spokesman this am!

When the state agencies, industry representatives and the media were struggling against time to get an important public service message out he busied himself with contradictory cheap nasty shots against the agencies involved.

On the one hand he made the unsubstantiated point that there were too many agencies involved and later that laboratory testing should be done in Ireland (persumably for every single chemical or biological parameter known). Such a laboratory would have to be independent of the various industry vested interests and would be another public service agency.

I think Ml Creed would be better advised to help get out the public service message and restore confidence in the industry and not to make these cheap shot remarks at this time.

Rant over.

aj

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nast shot on MI this AM

Bit of a contradiction when FG were calling for Public Service numbers to be cut and the number of agencies to be reduced. Also how does he think the laboratory in the UK were sending back the results, pigeon post?

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nast shot on MI this AM

Of course testing should be done in Ireland! Why do people think it's okay to out-source analysis affecting the health of people here.

As for too many agencies involved, this is Ireland so of course there are!

That this situation has occurred at all says there are major shortcoming in the system we already have so fair play to MC for saying it plainly. I think the pork farmers of Ireland will agree.

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nast shot on MI this AM

shesells said:

Of course testing should be done in Ireland! Why do people think it's okay to out-source analysis affecting the health of people here.

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Why should it be done here? If the best place to have the tests done is in the UK, France etc then should it not be done there?

Centres of excellence require a volume of throughput in order for staff to develop their skills. I don’t think we would have that here (but I’m open to correction).

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

As a scientist who left the field because of lack of opportunities...along with 80% of my graduating class...we are training plenty of experts here. There just aren't the jobs so you either take another job or you emigrate.

This is reminiscent of the argument about smear tests being sent to the US because it saved the government money. We have the people just not the jobs.

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

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Huh?

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

Was wondering about that too. No morning Ireland on weekends?

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

MI - Meat Industry. Not sure that it qualifies for the abbreviations thread.

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

The FG Agriculture spokesman was interviewed on a special edition of Morning Ireland yesterday morning. As I listened to him, I thought the same - opportunistic attempt at political point scoring, which added nothing else to the discussion.

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

Meat Industry or Morning Ireland? I still don't understand. It would have been a lot clearer to spell it out. Every random phrase can't be made into an abbreviation just like that. It's as bad as textspeak.

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

Given that Morning Ireland was on air yesterday and the thread title refers to a "nasty shot on MI this morning", I would assume its Morning Ireland that the OP is referring to. Maybe OP could clarify/edit the post?

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

Giving that there are four different watchdogs with a role in food safety and not one of them detected this, but rather the Italian I think cheap shots are the least of the goverment problems.

So we have 4 watchdogs, of which none did their job (independent of the discussion if the test could have been done in the testing centre at Backweston for which we paid over 12,000,000€ or somewhere in England) to protect us consumers.

It was the Italians that raised the alarm and it took our 4 watchdogs considerable time to respond and than despite the promisse that meat is traceable they deceided to do a complete recall. If the promissed fully traceable to the pig standard is reality, why do we need to recall everything? Shouldn't we be able to trace down the meat in question?

4 watchdogs, a 12,000,000 € facility, promisses of fully traceable meat later and the outcome? PANIC!

This latest episode of the comedy (or tragedy) we call goverment makes a strong case that we have too many incompetent watchdogs with useless standards.

We need a modern public service that is given the direction by competent people and not highly paid ministers who don't even know how much their haircut cost or who paid for it. (see another cheap shot).

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

europhile said:

Huh?

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Apologies, there was a Morning Ireland special aired on Sunday Morning. Unfortunately the thread title is limited to about 80 characters which necessitates some abbreviation.

I still think that Ml Creeds points about the agencies involved in food safety could wait a few weeks until after the crisis has passed and we can take a cool and rational look at what went wrong (and what went right). I found it odd that he suggested there were too many agencies on the one hand and that tests for every concievable biological and chemical hazard should be conducted in a laboratory in Ireland. Leading to more agencies and public servants and assets to run them.

His point about the multi agencies was repeated in todays Indo editiorial.

I object to these agencies being characterised as "Watchdogs" and being set up and knocked down as "straw men". What agencies are we talking about?

The Department of Agrciulture is too closely aligned to the farmers,producers and processors to be properly able to defend and protect the food consumer.

An Bord Bia has a mandate to promote and market Irish Food at home an abroad.

The Food Safety Authority is one and only "Watch Dog" and has the job of defending and protecting the interests of Irish Consumers (for all food, not just irish food, consumed in Ireland).

The Department of Health is the fourth agency mentioned.

Re: Pigmeat recall: Ml Creed FG Agri spokesman, cheap and nasty shot on MI this AM

ajapale said:

The Department of Agrciulture is too closely aligned to the farmers

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That's a funny one. Most farmers I know live in absolute dread of the Dept of Agriculture, who have the power to unilaterally take away a large % of their income if they find errors on their part, even inadvertent errors.