Well said
As usual we are dragging our feet instead of being proactive and coming down heavy on what is obviously criminal activity in some shape or form.
Trying to protect the beef institution; what does that remind you of!!

In the cases up until now, it’s very hard to prove who’s responsible for the wrongdoing.
Everybody will claim their supplier had guaranteed them it was beef, and up until this scandal broke, those assurances would’ve been taken at face-value.
This time, with B&F, it should be easy to prove who’s responsible though: Because all foreign language labels are agreed with customers, there should be an obvious paper trail showing whether the producer was conning the customer, or the customer was conning people further down the line.
If it turns out these guys are cowboys who were mis-labelling, their licence should be revoked permanently and fraud charges will surely follow.

Same as the banking scandal across Europe, it started by everyone asking ‘who’s guilty?’ They’re all at it, and it shouldn’t come as any surprise that our own wee corrupt haven are up to ears in horse sh1t as well

You say it’s very hard to prove, 1 who’s in front of us to be judged and 2 the meat industry loves the likes of you

Eh? Not sure I understand what you mean Peter.
I’m not trying to defend anyone: Suspicion and proof are not the same thing.
Today’s case should be easy to prove, but not so the previous ones… that’s all I’m saying

Compare this to Britain where there are already 3 abbatoir owners behind bars ! …Here they’re leaning at, or training for the bar(s) …in my opinion!

Well said Joe but where do they get the horses in Ireland and what about the abattoir controls?

jimboandbear , the Minister is saying it is fraud and he wants to go after them for that crime. That is welcome.

@derville. The Irish farmer gave away it’s right to control its destiny years ago for the quick buck! They couldn’t run a piss up/brewery etc with in-fighting, greed, corrupt practices and gombeenism. They deserve every single hit they get from the processor now as not one of them could agree to keep the meat trade under it’s own keep. From the Cork Marts debacle to the IMP company, the farmer screwed himself. Everytime. And it will happen again and again, in fact Glanbia may even be a present example! Farmers care about only themselves, and all other sectors of society can bugger off! That is of course until they need home support to buy their product or CAP needs amending or University grants are affected by including assets rather than turnover! Then we all have to listen to how farmers( the only ones working hard in the world, nay, universe), are hard done by! Greed has you where you are today Farmers, you are no different to a Banker!

that chip on your shoulder is showing. No farmer is walking a horse into an slaughtering plant and passing it off as cow , the secondary producers are either buying cheap imports and passing it off as Irish beef or know passing horse meat slaughtered in Ireland as beef. There is no farmer greed in that only the secondary producers.

@ derville. My comment was to highlight the fact farmers gave away the control of their own meat processing business to an outside interest thru’ incompetent greed and gobdaw’ism and now moan and bitch about it. Chips on shoulders blah blah! Wake up Derville! You’re defending the indefensible. Look at the reality. Farmers have NO control of their own business end product either in beef or milk!

They say they sell equine meats, well then, whats all the fuss about ? (apart from calling it beef)

Bridle & Fetlock Meats obviously!… Ok..crap joke.

Wait until they start testing for human DNA!

Mr Coveney
If we pay the household charge
will you stop these criminals from poisoning our food supply?

Our beef is the best in the world ,produced to the highest standard ,the problem starts at processing ,where it looks like now to be ran by con men , i just hope all the work that has been done by beef farmers up and down the country hasn’t been tarnished

Katie, buy Irish beef from a butcher in it’s unprocessed state and you won’t go wrong. And before you ask I’m not a butcher but I am from a farming background.

@Dermot Our beef is excellent when it walks into the factory and when it’s hung in whole sides. Once it’s past that point and begins to be boned and segmented for sale and processing I’ve got far less confidence. My experience working in one of the countries largest meat plants (not on the floor, in the catering end, but you hear a lot of things there) is that the motivator for plant management is profit first, quality a poor second, and if that means bypassing or frustrating checks then so be it.

You are quite right about farmers though. They are producing a top notch product and have every right to be very angry indeed if those to whom they sell it are then harming it further along the chain.

@Brendan, I do. But that is completely beside the point.

This is to do with our processed food industry and meat exports and their reputation for quality. It’s to do with food labeling actually telling you what’s in your food – and no matter how much or how little you pay for your food, you are at a minimum entitled to know what you are buying.

Katie, all the labelling in the world wouldn’t have prevented what has gone on in the meat industry over the past number of months. The problem here is fraud on a huge scale and probable negligence as well. The processors labelled these products as beef because they took what they were getting at face value.

@Brendan, if you are suggesting that the Irish beef processors were just naive and over trusting of some nefarious suppliers who duped them by passing off horsemeat as beef, I think you are wrong. Not only do I think that many more people than are admitting it knew exactly what they were getting, I think that today’s events suggest that meat processors in Ireland may have been at the heart of the fraud.

It’s not just for months they’ve been up to dodgy stuff, it’s years, decades. They have a documented history of same.

No our beef is not “the best in the world”.
You have obviously never been to an Argentinian steak house.

Katie, I called what has happened FRAUD and negligence. Some probably are guilty of fraud but the problem isn’t a labelling one. They’re hardly going to label their crap correctly.

Gerry is right. I’ve been to several Central American steak houses and the meat there is unimaginably good. It is so far beyond any steak I’ve ever had you’d think it came from another planet. Really. Thanks for reminding me of what great beef can be had in Central and South America. AND they tango there, senor!

Yes , beef from Argentina is excellent ,but under Argentina s rules growth hormones can be used ,not in Ireland,so if you like beef aided using hormones knock yourself out

Another planet ! With the use of hormones it might as well be from another planet

Spot on Dermot.

Isn’t mince, by definition, processed?

No, in this case they are referring to meat that will be used to make products, such as burgers, pies, lasagne, whatever. That is what is meant by meat for processing.

No meat sold fresh – eg mince – has so far been tested at all. And it looks as though there are no plans to do so.

Horse meat ain’t that bad , you can take off the helmet :-)

Dermot, I’m sure horsemeat is delightful and if Tesco start selling it I might even buy it, however the problem is they’re not telling us that it’s in the meals that they are labelling as beef. Oh yeah and there’s also a possible problem with bute contaminated meat which is harmful to humans.

Enjoy your vegetarian with a fine chianti.

And fava beans, don’t forget the fava beans….thththth.

I only eat 100% corn fed vegetarians.

And why did i get a red thumb in the name of god????

Blind cobblers get red thumbs and you don’t hear them complaining….

Gives a new meaning to the phrase “who’s taking the horse to France”!!!

Oh hello two months ago, welcome back!