Here in the US, the problem is relaxed enforcement of regulations across the board, which forced one meat packer in New Jersey out of business a year ago.

The relaxation in enforcement has been right out of the republican playbook on governance, and has been since at least the Reagan administration. Vice President George H. W. Bush went to work those first dayswith a list of things the government could do to help the Big Three automakers, which these days seems sort of laughable.

Republicans would say that the free market operated as it should when Topps Meats closed and they'd be sort of right. But tell that to the handful of people who became ill and could have died.

I wish I knew more about Irish politics though, so I could place your larger point in some kind of context. So I could put faces on the players.

"It Can't Be Just About Us"
--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire