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Animal By-Products Regulation information page .

The European Commission has adopted a regulation that will regulate Animal By-Products handling and disposal. The regulation is available at the Europa website at
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/pri/en/oj/dat/2002/l_273/l_27320021010en00010095.pdf
The Animal By-Products Regulation was adopted 3 September 2003 and will be transposed into Irish law 1 May 2003. There is allowance for the Irish Government to adopt a form of the legislation that will be more favourable to the composting industry.

The document is quite detailed so Cré have developed a briefing document. Download briefing document here. A presentation as given to the members of Cré, which also summarises the legislation, is here. Another presentation as developed by the EU is available here.

The EU have developed a question and answer paper that deals in part with the issue of composting. Download it here.

Ireland must now develop a form of this legislation. Cré circulated a letter calling for all members to read up on this issue and to attend a general meeting with the Department of Agriculture on 20 March 2003. At this meeting Cré presented an outline of legislation that may be acceptable to all parties. This approach is based on the Risk Assessment commissioned by DEFRA.

As a response to the Animal By-Products issue, the UK Department of Farm and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) commissioned a Risk Assessment that evaluated risks and suggested a form that the UK implementing legislation should take. The Risk Assessment is available to download from the DEFRA website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/by-prods/cater/comprisk.htm and an executive summary is available again from the DEFRA website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/by-prods/publicat/execsum.pdf

The UK Government has used this Risk Assessment to develop a form of legislation. It is useful to examine this legislation, as we in Ireland must develop an equivalent form of it. This legislation is available from the DEFRA Website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/euanimbyprod/draftsi.pdf

Having presented this issue to the Department of Agriculture, Cré were asked to submit a document to the Department as soon as possible. A committee was convened and undertook to submit a paper, once agreement of members was achieved on it. It is proposed to have this paper with the department by mid-April.

This page will act as a resource for information on developments in this issue. Any developments will be posted as early as possible.