A blog is just a blog and is rarely definitive. I missed two elements of the post relating to the contamination of Irish pork products.

A. Irish farmers sell their pigs to factory processors; it is from the processor that the supermarket/retailer gets supplies. (So too, will a secondary processor such as a sausage maker). So, the retailers will have a claim against the processors; the processors will have claims against the farmers.

B. My post assumed delivery of the oil at its source. If delivery is at and to the Irish pig feed manufacturer in Ireland, Council Regulation 44/2001 will apply. Jurisdiction in those circumstances will be Ireland, not the place of the location of the supplier of the oil.

Details of the indemnity to the factory processors, by the Irish Government, are not to hand. Accounts suggest it is not a full indemnity. If so, the processors will be able to properly claim the balance from the farmers, who will in turn be able to make a claim against the pig feed supplier.

A sensible arrangement for the Government indemnity would have made provision for Ireland to be entitled to receive a proper portion of compensation recovered from farmers and/or the pig feed supplier.

A matter of great interest is the level of insurance cover of the farmers and the pig feed supplier. As always, the practicality of litigation is important.

Yet again we see the urgent necessity of legislation in Ireland to provide for Third Party rights under insurance and other contracts.

In the UK they have had that for 70 years and do not appear to have had any problems. What’s keeping us, (besides ineptness)?