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Vets providing services in small local abattoirs will continue operating after a three-month extension was agreed between the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) and the County and City Management Association (CCMA).
Local authority vets were caught in a funding dispute between the two sides earlier in the year, when the CCMA said it could no longer continue to hire vets after funding from the FSAI was cut.
Some 173 abattoirs covering over 15% (408,573) of the annual national kill rely on local authority vets to provide regular testing services on slaughtered animals, without which they couldn’t legally operate.
Former Minister of Health Simon Harris said the Department of Health had increased funding by €1.2m (7%) to the FSAI, bringing the total non-capital allocation to €17.172m.
Harris said he hoped this would allow time for a longer-term solution to be put in place.
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