Almost €8 million in funding has been reallocated to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to operate the local authority veterinary services this year.
The planned transfer of local authority veterinary services from the Department of Health to DAFM took place, as expected, on January 2.
It followed long-running discussions between the two departments, along with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI).
In a joint memo presented to the Cabinet last July it had been planned to carry out a phased transfer.
However, DAFM told Agriland that “on balance a full transfer on a single date was the preferred option”.
DAFM
The government agreed on a permanent transfer of funding from the Department of Health to DAFM, along with the transfer of relevant staff resources from local authorities.
€7.7 million has been transferred from the Department of Health to DAFM for 2025 to cover the costs of the service.
“Some final administrative aspects of the transfer are being finalised during the month of January.
“In total 457 food businesses and 25 local authority veterinary inspectors are involved in the transfer,” a DAFM spokesperson said.
The businesses are a mixture of slaughter plants, food processing plants, small meat manufacturing plants, cold stores and related food businesses.
“The inspection regimes will broadly remain the same as before the transfer,” the spokesperson said.
The department said that no other employees are being transferred as part of the arrangement.
“Some contractors (temporary veterinary inspectors) who provided services in some of the food businesses, such as antemortem and postmortem inspections, will continue to provide similar services now that the businesses have transferred over to the department,” the spokesperson added.
The department employs around 60 other veterinary inspectors, who supported by a number of technical staff, to carry out food safety duties in all larger slaughter plants and other larger meat plants, processing plants and cold stores.