S.I. No. 345 of 2009

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES AND ANIMAL BY-PRODUCTS) (AMENDMENT) (No. 2) REGULATIONS 2009

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

"Iris Oifigiúil" of 1st September, 2009.

I, BRENDAN SMITH, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), for the purpose of giving full effect to Commission Decision No. 2008/908/EC of 28 November 2008 1 , hereby make the following Regulations:

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies and Animal by-products) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2009.

2. The European Communities (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies and Animal by-products) Regulations 2008 ( S.I. No. 252 of 2008 ) are amended-

(a) in Regulation 9 by the insertion after paragraph (4), of-

"(5) This Regulation applies to an animal originating from a Member State listed in the Annex to Commission Decision No. 2008/908/EC and referred to at point 2.1, 2.2 or 3.1 of Part 1 of Chapter A of Annex III to the TSE Regulation if the animal is over the age of 48 months.", and

(b) by the insertion, in Regulation 30(1)(b) after "Chapter A" of "(as amended by Commission Decision No. 2008/908/EC of 28 November 2008)".

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

27 August 2009

BRENDAN SMITH

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation)

These Regulations transpose Commission Decision 2008/908/EC and authorise certain Member States viz: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Sweden and the UK to revise their BSE monitoring programmes to apply to animals originating from these countries above 48 months of age.

This raises the testing threshold to 48 months for animals for casualty and emergency slaughter (from 24 months), all bovines animals slaughtered for human consumption (from 30 months) and all bovine animals that die on farm (from 24 months) for animals originating from these Member States. There is no change for the age requirements in respect of animals originating in other Member States.

1 O.J. L 327 of 5.12. 2008, p.24