Search Results for: Irish

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
MORE than 2,000 kilograms of illegally imported food products have been seized at Dublin airport each month this year. The figure has prompted the Irish government to tighten restrictions, including a ban on personal imports of animal-based products from outside the EU and a limit of 10 kg per person on meat and milk-based products from within Europe.…

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 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 ALAN OSBORN
AN INTERNATIONAL team of scientists based at Galway, in Ireland, has made a surprising discovery that could have significant consequences for future climate change.

The EU-sponsored Parforce research project, led by the National University of Ireland, has found that iodine vapours released by marine algae can help thicken haze and cloud layers, blocking sunlight and thereby partially offsetting global warming from greenhouse gases.…

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 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 JONATHAN THOMSON
THE IRISH GOVERNMENT is about to launch a pig-tracing system to help prevent the spread of Aujeszky’s disease.

All pigs travelling to abattoirs will be identified with a slap mark and will be tagged during all other movements, under the National Pig Identification and Tracing System (NPITS).…

BY MONICA DOBIE, in Montreal
THE FIRST steps have been taken towards making cigarettes – a cornerstone of small shop revenue – an under-the-counter product worldwide. Laws have already been passed in Canada and Ireland banning the public display of tobacco products, dismaying shopkeepers’ representatives.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
THE IRISH parliament, the Dail, has recently passed legislation giving ministers to the power to ban the advertising or display of tobacco products in shops. Ireland is the first state within the EU to agree such a regulation, a move which may encourage similar policies in other Member States.…