Articles in the BallyBay Category

By MICHAEL McDONNELL michael@northern-standard.ie AN INSIGHT into the thinking of Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan in relation to his controversial plans to abolish town councils next year was gleaned at Monday’s meeting of Ballybay Town Council, where a letter from the Minister in response to concerns that were raised by the councillors was read out. The Minister’s rationale makes it clear that he seems determined to push ahead with the proposals outlined in the ‘Putting People First — Action Programme for Effective Local Government’ document, notwithstanding ...

BALLYBAY Community College student David Wacks has come top of the class nationally in the Transition Year category of the National Career Skills Awards 2013, for his exploration of careers as an optician or ophthalmologist. Sponsored by McDonald’s Ireland and run by www.careersportal.ie, the National Career Skills Awards recognise students who carry out career investigations into their chosen area of interest — and use the knowledge and insights gleaned to help equip guidance councillors with information in the area of career skills. David won 1st prize in ...

The Silvercrest meat processing facility at Ballybay which found itself at the centre of the horsemeat controversy earlier this year is to be sold by the ABP Food Group to the Kepak Group, subject to approval by the Competition Authority. The deal agreed between the two leading food processing companies was announced by ABP Chief Executive Paul Finnerty last week, who said it would “draw a line” under the recent controversy. The terms of the transaction are confidential. The sale involves the transfer of the 122 staff ...

Ballybay 2-10 Castleblayney 1-08 BY COLM SHALVEY GOALS by Hugh Malone and Christopher McGuinness helped Ballybay pick up their second SFL win at home to Castleblayney last Sunday. Ballybay led from the first minute right through to the end and rarely looked troubled, although Blayney could have been closer but for poor finishing which saw them kick nine wides. Christopher McGuinness continued his good form for Ballybay, who also had Paul Finlay, Ryan and Drew Wylie and Malone to the fore. Blayney had Ciarán Hughes and Ciarán Hanratty available after lengthy injury absences, but they ...

Silvercrest Foods in Ballybay, one of the companies which has found itself at the centre of the ongoing horsemeat controversy, had used non-approved suppliers, a House of Commons Committee hearing was told this week. The Chief Executive of the ABP Food Group, Paul Finnerty, said that the company had now taken steps to ensure that unapproved suppliers would not be used again. Mr Finnerty was answering questions about how equine DNA was found in burgers that ended up on British supermarket shelves. The Chief Executive told the ...

The ABP Food Group has put a new management team in place at its Silvercrest facility in Ballybay, Group Chief Executive Paul Finnerty confirmed this week. ABP announced a number of other new management and safety procedures following the confirmation by joint Dept of Agriculture and Food Safety Authority testing that the source of equine DNA introduced into burgers manufactured at Silvercrest came from an ingredient supplied from Poland. Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said that tests on samples taken from Irish food ingredients were negative, and he ...

Production at Silvercrest Foods in Ballybay has been temporarily suspended by the company until it has completed its investigation into the source of horse DNA traces detected in burger products. Preliminary details of further tests carried out by the Dept of Agriculture at the plant released last week showed that nine out of 13 burgers tested positive for traces of equine DNA. Seven samples of raw material were tested and one, sourced from another EU state, tested positive. All ingredients in the production of burgers sourced ...

The meat processing sector in Cavan/Monaghan was dealt a blow this week when beef burger products from two local plants were found to contain horse DNA in testing by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. The ABP-owned Silvercrest Foods of Ballybay and Cavan’s Liffey Meats, as well as the UK company Dalepak Hambleton, were identified as the source of the products concerned. In all the presence of horse DNA was found in more than one third of beef burger products tested in a study by the FSAI. Pig DNA was ...