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| Horsemeat scandal: called to committee | Horsemeat scandal: called to committee |
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| The Guardian has learned that the Efra committee has drawn up a list of Irish traders and manufacturers to come to parliament to give evidence on how horsemeat got into the beef supply chain, but so far most have declined to attend. Those asked include: | The Guardian has learned that the Efra committee has drawn up a list of Irish traders and manufacturers to come to parliament to give evidence on how horsemeat got into the beef supply chain, but so far most have declined to attend. Those asked include: |
| • Larry Goodman, the Irish beef baron and chairman/owner of ABP Food group. Its Silvercrest and Dalepak factories in Ireland and Yorkshire sold burgers and mince adulterated with horse to UK supermarkets including Tesco, Asda, and Iceland. The committee has already taken evidence from his chief executive, Paul Finnerty, but wants to question Goodman in person. A Labour Efra member, Barry Gardiner, put it to Finnerty that Goodman's beef companies had been found by a 1994 Irish public inquiry called the Beef Tribunal to have faked records, made fraudulent claims for European subsidies, commissioned bogus official stamps to misclassify meat, cheated customs officials and engaged in institutionalised tax evasion using fake invoices. Goodman's ABP says it is an innocent victim of the recent fraud and that Goodman could not add to evidence already given by the company. | • Larry Goodman, the Irish beef baron and chairman/owner of ABP Food group. Its Silvercrest and Dalepak factories in Ireland and Yorkshire sold burgers and mince adulterated with horse to UK supermarkets including Tesco, Asda, and Iceland. The committee has already taken evidence from his chief executive, Paul Finnerty, but wants to question Goodman in person. A Labour Efra member, Barry Gardiner, put it to Finnerty that Goodman's beef companies had been found by a 1994 Irish public inquiry called the Beef Tribunal to have faked records, made fraudulent claims for European subsidies, commissioned bogus official stamps to misclassify meat, cheated customs officials and engaged in institutionalised tax evasion using fake invoices. Goodman's ABP says it is an innocent victim of the recent fraud and that Goodman could not add to evidence already given by the company. |
| • Patrick Coveney, the chief executive of Greencore, the Irish processing company that supplied Asda with bolognese sauce that Asda tests found to be 5% horse. Greencore said it had received its meat from ABP but now maintains that the original Asda tests must have been a mistake since further tests on the same batches came back negative. ABP said it had been cleared by Greencore. Asda finally allowed the product back on its shelves at the end of April but has not withdrawn its test finding. Patrick Coveney, brother of the Irish agriculture minister, has declined the committee's request to attend, saying the company has given extensive written evidence. | • Patrick Coveney, the chief executive of Greencore, the Irish processing company that supplied Asda with bolognese sauce that Asda tests found to be 5% horse. Greencore said it had received its meat from ABP but now maintains that the original Asda tests must have been a mistake since further tests on the same batches came back negative. ABP said it had been cleared by Greencore. Asda finally allowed the product back on its shelves at the end of April but has not withdrawn its test finding. Patrick Coveney, brother of the Irish agriculture minister, has declined the committee's request to attend, saying the company has given extensive written evidence. |
| • Eamon Mackle and Jim Fairbairn, the owner director and senior executive of Freeza Meats, a meat processor in Newry, Northern Ireland whose cold store was found in February to contain a consignment of frozen meat that was 80% horse. Freeza made frozen burgers for Asda. It has said the horse did not belong to it but was being held as "a goodwill gesture" for another Irish trader, Martin McAdam. Mackle and Fairbairn were identified in the Beef Tribunal as key players in Goodman company scams to make fraudulent claims for European subsidies and then cover them up. Freeza Meats said it had suffered through no fault of its own, and that the company had at no point had any link whatsoever to Larry Goodman or ABP. It said that it would not comment on events recorded in the beef tribunal over 25 years old. Jim Fairbairn will appear at Efra on Tuesday. | • Eamon Mackle and Jim Fairbairn, the owner director and senior executive of Freeza Meats, a meat processor in Newry, Northern Ireland whose cold store was found in February to contain a consignment of frozen meat that was 80% horse. Freeza made frozen burgers for Asda. It has said the horse did not belong to it but was being held as "a goodwill gesture" for another Irish trader, Martin McAdam. Mackle and Fairbairn were identified in the Beef Tribunal as key players in Goodman company scams to make fraudulent claims for European subsidies and then cover them up. Freeza Meats said it had suffered through no fault of its own, and that the company had at no point had any link whatsoever to Larry Goodman or ABP. It said that it would not comment on events recorded in the beef tribunal over 25 years old. Jim Fairbairn will appear at Efra on Tuesday. |
| • Martin McAdam, an Irish meat trader, blamed by ABP Silvercrest and another Irish firm for supplying Polish beef that turned out to contain horse, as well as for the horse in Freeza Meats' cold store. McAdam says he only imported what he believed to be beef. He has declined the committee's request to attend saying that he has co-operated fully with the FSAI which has jurisdiction over his business. | • Martin McAdam, an Irish meat trader, blamed by ABP Silvercrest and another Irish firm for supplying Polish beef that turned out to contain horse, as well as for the horse in Freeza Meats' cold store. McAdam says he only imported what he believed to be beef. He has declined the committee's request to attend saying that he has co-operated fully with the FSAI which has jurisdiction over his business. |
| • Ray MacSharry Jr, Irish director and shareholder of Cheshire-based Norwest Foods International, which is part of FSA inquiries. It has satellite offices in Poland and Spain and is a supplier to ABP. MacSharry Jr is son of the former Irish minister and European agriculture commissioner of the same name and worked for Larry Goodman during the period investigated by the Beef Tribunal. Norwest said that it had never knowingly imported horsemeat but, when pressed on whether it had imported any unknowingly, it declined to answer further. | • Ray MacSharry Jr, Irish director and shareholder of Cheshire-based Norwest Foods International, which is part of FSA inquiries. It has satellite offices in Poland and Spain and is a supplier to ABP. MacSharry Jr is son of the former Irish minister and European agriculture commissioner of the same name and worked for Larry Goodman during the period investigated by the Beef Tribunal. Norwest said that it had never knowingly imported horsemeat but, when pressed on whether it had imported any unknowingly, it declined to answer further. |
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