IFA Poultry Chairman, Alo Mohan, said it is incredible and totally unacceptable that the government are awarding food supply contracts to companies outside the state and placing jobs and producers of Irish products at risk.

Mr Mohan said the IFA has been informed that the Health Service Executive (HSE) has recently withdrawn a major meat contract from an Irish supplier and awarded the contract to an out-of-State meat wholesaler.

The IFA Poultry leader said: "This is double standards by the government, which on one hand regard people crossing the border to shop as unpatriotic while on the other they award multi-million Euro contracts to out-of-State suppliers, resulting in job losses and the import of non Irish produce."

In addition, Mr Mohan said after major investments by Irish farmers, Bord Bia and processors in developing the highest standards through the Bord Bia Quality Assurance scheme, it is unbelievable that the Government would not insist on this standard for all procurement.

He said: "This is a real case of the Government not practicing what they preach."

Mr Mohan called on Cathal Magee who has just been appointed as the new Chief Executive of the HSE and Minister for Health, Mary Harney, to intervene and insist that the meat supplied to the HSE is quality assurance Irish produce, produced and processed in the Republic of Ireland.