Search Results for: Ireland

BY KEITH NUTHALL
FRANZ Fischler has given himself a tough job; trying to persuade dairy farmers it is time to expose themselves to unfettered world markets when prices are at rock bottom, while facing hostility to further CAP reform from some European Union governments, notably France.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
ONE of Britain’s best-known food safety experts, Deirdre Hutton, has been appointed to the board of the newly formed European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Ms Hutton, who is chairman of the National Consumer Council, led a recent DTI panel on the Food Chain and Crops for Industry and was a member of the government’s Policy Commission on the Future of Farming and Food (the Curry report).…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THE Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) has claimed a boost in the number of Improvement Notices is helping it win its battle against the country’s unhygienic takeaways, cafes and restaurants.

The FSAI said that just fourteen Republic food outlets were closed down in the first six months of the year, ten less than in the same period last year and its food safety officials say the reason is an increase in the number of these Notices it has issued to proprietors.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission has approved a scheme for the development of the natural gas infrastructure in Northern Ireland that will mean supplies from the Republic of Ireland being pumped into the north for the first time. The Commission said that eventually the infrastructure may be extended to north-westerly regions of Ireland, such as Donegal, which are not currently served by natural gas and it therefore “takes a big step towards the development of an all-island natural gas infrastructure.”…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has launched a case at the European Court of Justice against the British government, which is claims has failed to abide by European Union laws on environmental impact assessments for studies carried out on water management and green-field development projects.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
FIGURES from the Wine Development Board of Ireland show that the country’s wine market has grown by 15 per cent in the first four months of 2002, further closing the gap on beer. Women are apparently driving growth, consuming 57 per cent of wine sold in Ireland.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
SMALL shops in Ireland are losing Euros 450 (Pounds 300) worth of shopping baskets every month on average, following the introduction of a Euro 15 cent (10p) environmental levy on plastic carrier bags, according to an Irish small retailers group.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THE EUROPEAN Union is reassessing its so-far negative position on individual sheep tagging, says the Irish Farmers’ Association. Brussels has maintained that individual tagging is not practical, but association sheep committee chairman, Laurence Fallon claims that the Commission is having a “major reassessment” of its position.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
RESEARCHERS in Ireland have developed a system that allows farmers to remotely monitor the temperature of cattle using a mobile phone. The Grange Research Centre, part of the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), have recently completed tests using an electronic bolus (a kind of pill) placed in the cow’s rumen, (one of its stomachs).…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE BRITISH government is to be taken to the European Court of Justice by the European Commission for allegedly failing to prioritise the processing of waste oils by regeneration, supposedly breaking the Waste Oils Directive. The UK is also facing an ECJ case over claims that it has not implemented the Landfill Directive for the whole country, notably in Northern Ireland.…