A former Tynwald Member who served on a committee investigating the island’s meat plant has criticised the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA) continued involvement in the facility.
Chris Robertshaw (MHK 2010 – 2021) was a member of the Environment and Infrastructure Policy Review Committee who published a report in Summer 2021.
Mr Robertshaw told Manx.News that despite recommendations DEFA should not be both running and regulating the plant, the separation has still not happened.
DEFA are the shareholders in the Isle of Man Meat Company (Isle of Man Meats).
It was intended that the ownership of the Isle of Man Meat Company would be transferred to Treasury meaning DEFA could carry out its main role as the regulator.
The report was highly critical of the way the plant was managed, operated and functioned.
Since the report was published, a new management team were brought in, however the meat plant is still under the control of DEFA.
But in a strange twist, a member of the committee, who was so critical of the structure, is now the Minister responsible for the facility.
Clare Barber is the Minister of DEFA and by position, is the current shareholder of Isle of Man Meats.
Despite the new management team, Isle of Man Meats performance has been in the spotlight once again after a string of breakdowns and the disposal of a large quantity of rotting meat just after Christmas.
Tesco beef recall
Only a few weeks after the rotting meat scandal, Isle of Man Meats issued a product recall resulting in a large quantity of meat being removed from Tesco shelves and destroyed.
As if that wasn’t enough, a further 2000kg of beef was disposed of in April.
Bereaucratic Road to Hell
Robertshaw, who has now retired from politics said that “it isn’t wise and sensible for a bureaucratic, politically lead body to assume it can sort it out”.
He went on to say that DEFA and Isle of Man Meats were on a “road to hell at that stage”.
He asks himself, “what convinces me now that the Department can turn this around; the answer is, no it can’t.”
Mr Robertshaw says it is sad that this doesn’t seem to be preoccupying the minds of either the Council of Ministers or Tynwald Members.
He said this is part of the future economy of the Isle of Man.
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