The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry is in possession and he has seven minutes speaking time remaining. This includes time added on which was expended on interventions.
Beef Industry: Statements (Resumed).
I did not know I got injury time for interventions; that is most welcome. I will summarise some of the comments I was making before the break.
Every possible step was taken politically at the highest level, with the Russian Prime Minister in Moscow, the technical delegations, and my opposite number over two months to avert a ban. We were shown media reports within the Moscow media depicting Irish mad beef to be a possible risk to human health and showing the real public concerns that exist there. This culminated in an agreement to defer any decision pending the most senior veterinary and health officials coming to Ireland.
That process concluded in an arrangement and an agreement containing the regionalisation proposal was put to us late last Friday night on a take it or leave it basis and we left it. We pressed again on Saturday morning, seeking a further mitigation and exemption from the regionalisation categorisation. I was not present. We asked whether it was obligatory for us to sign this and we were told that it was not, but that the consequences of not signing it would be that the delegation would return to Moscow and advocate a ban to the Prime Minister with effect from 1 November. He was quite angry that there was not an agreement on Friday night. He then told us we had five minutes to make our decision. That is my recollection of what happened and there are witnesses to verify its accuracy.
This circumstance in my view would have led to a really serious situation because of our dependence, rightly or wrongly, on the Russian market. Not only is it the most important market in terms of volume, but it takes forequarter beef, the cheaper cuts which have proved the least easy to sell in the European market in terms of mince and burgers. There is a strategic fit as well as a volume and money factor worth more than £325 million. It was outlined to me that beef from the three counties in question can be sold as part of the 170,000 tonnes of sales to continental Europe or part of the 50,000 tonnes that we are selling to Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia and South Africa and that this, therefore, was a confinement factor within meat plants. The lots could possibly be simply bought in the normal way. Some meat would be stamped for sale in Russia and other meat would go elsewhere.
Before agreeing to this I discussed the matter with some of the largest exporters of beef to Russia and they indicated to me that it was manageable.
Who are they?
I would rather keep their names confidential.
Did the Minister leave anyone out of his consultations?
I am satisfied with the bona fides of the people I spoke to.
Was the Minister unhappy with the bona fides of those he did not speak to?
I met with and spoke to representatives of the meat industry yesterday. All representatives were spoken to yesterday at a meeting in the Department.
I wish to add one further comment to those I made earlier. Since June of this year, I have been working intensively with the Department to try to put in place a traceability scheme that would chart the entire movements in one file of an animal over its lifetime. It is the new passport scheme. It will include information on where the animal is born, every county it was in when a premium was claimed in respect of it and everywhere it was TB tested. We produced these details to the Russians. They were not acceptable to them. It is my intention to look at the affected counties to try to implement a pilot scheme early and, perhaps, to bring specific proposals to Government.
For some months now I have been pressing that the computer related issues, the financial and personnel issues be accelerated. I cannot indicate a precise date at this time, but it is my intention to move in the direction of guarantees in this regard. There may be questions to do with flagged herds, as is the case with Northern Ireland, and other assurances may be sought as a consequence of this. They would be far more preferable, specific and reassuring, however, than the approach taken by the Russian veterinary authorities. I intend to report to the House as soon as I have detailed practical proposals in this regard.
On a point of information, may I ask the Minister if he has the matching resources in his Department to deal with the financial implications of purchasing equipment and providing adequate personnel to do what he has just outlined?
The Deputy will be aware that since 16 September we have already spent money on computerised facilities. Every female animal that has to be slaughtered must check against the records in the herd. Additional resources would be required for the measures I outlined and I will have to put a proposal to Government in that regard. There is not provision in the existing Estimate.
It is my intention to meet the leaders of all the farm organisations this evening and tomorrow evening to brief them fully on the position and to outline to them the importance of taking a calm approach. This problem is disease and incident led and we must work together to reassure our customers, particularly the Russians, that there is no need for further concern arising out of this decision.
This debate will not change the Protocol nor will any amount of protest. We must proceed on the basis that the Protocol is a fact of life and ensure that there is both price stability and consolidation. The most important issue is that farmers' incomes are fully protected.
The Minister maintains that nothing can be done at this stage. Will he not accept that the Taoiseach should intervene personally in this matter and travel to Russia? Such action was taken formerly by a Fianna Fáil Minister when a similar problem arose and the then Taoiseach spoke to his counterpart by telephone. This is a serious problem but the Minister does not seem to accept it is serious in the three counties affected.
I assure the Deputy, who is from one of the affected counties, that not only do I fully appreciate it but I appreciate it more than anyone else. This morning I had a report from our Ambassador in Moscow which indicated that it would be counterproductive for me or anyone else to go to Russia this week or next week. The Ambassador is of the view that it would be better to let the dust settle. His diplomatic assessment is that the best deal that can be done has been done. I assure the Deputy that in the arrangement of any political visit, I will have close contact with the Taoiseach and the most effective political visit will be planned.
We have come to discuss this latest debacle in the handling of the BSE problem and I assure the Minister that I will not involve myself in hysterics, nor will I be making a prophecy of doom and gloom. As Opposition spokesman it is my job to scrutinise closely the actions of the Minister and his Minister of State; the inadequacy of the political response since 20 March; the failure of the Minister to give this matter top political priority; the level of total disinterest in this industry on the part of those sitting around the Cabinet table, many of whom are there because they made unsubstantiated allegations subsequently proven to be so at a tribunal of inquiry into the beef industry, and who are not prepared to represent an unrepresented industry, the food industry. Those are the political facts of life as the Minister sits around the Cabinet table.
We have reached this debacle today because there has been an abject political failure to recognise the magnitude of this problem and to put in place a political response to the problems that have arisen since the announcement on 20 March. This Administration has failed abysmally to defend our national interest and an economy that depends on this industry 20 times more than any other economy in the EU.
The Minister's strategy, which he has outlined to us since 20 March, was so good he had to use demeaning terminology to describe how a gun was put to his head by a veterinary inspector of the Russian Federation on an airport tarmac. We have now had the dramatic revelation that the Minister, as the political head of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, whose brief is to protect, maintain and uphold the integrity of our product throughout the world, was forced to sign on the dotted line in Dublin Airport last Saturday. That is the strategy being used to protect thousands of farm livelihoods and PAYE workers who are dependent on a vibrant beef processing industry. The Minister's strategy led us to that political cul-de-sac in Dublin Airport last Saturday morning.
The Minister expects me to congratulate him and the Taoiseach on the great job they have done to protect the integrity of our product. The Minister's contribution today is proof positive of the tardiness with which this matter has been dealt, even if we were to confine it to the Russian market alone, as the Minister sought to do in his contribution.
In the first debate on this crisis following the announcement on 20 March I told the Minister I was appalled at his statement to the House because not one political decision had been taken by the Government. A decision was not taken to form a Cabinet sub-committee under the chairmanship of the Taoiseach which would monitor the crisis on a weekly basis. A decision was not taken to co-ordinate all our resources and decide what needed to be done to reassure all the customers who are now questioning the quality of our beef because of the perception that in some way we are associated with the British market. A decision was not taken to direct the Minister for Finance to give the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the resources he required to ensure we not only maintain our current position, but improve on it.
In reply to a question from my colleague, Deputy Smith, the Minister told the House this afternoon, with a straight face, that he still does not have resources available to him to put in place a proper traceability system to ensure quality assurance for the national herd. The Minister has the gall to come into the House, having disowned the farmers of Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan, and suggest he will consider a pilot traceability programme for those counties. What good is that to them now when the harm has been done?
The Minister claims he has been doing all he could since 20 March, but why did the Taoiseach not tell the Tánaiste, who has done nothing as Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the Minister for Finance to give the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the resources he requires?
When I came back from my visit to Iran I was ridiculed. The Minister's spindoctors said there was little point in going to Iran because this was only a technical problem and it would be resolved in two or three weeks. I have the data and the newspaper cuttings to prove it. We were told the matter would be settled in a couple of weeks and that Fianna Fáil was involved in showmanship. Having met the Iranians face to face, I told the Minister that a joint trade commission meeting should be held under the chairmanship of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dick Spring. He was not interested. I told the Taoiseach during Question Time that if the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs was not prepared to go, it would be sufficient for his junior colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Gay Mitchell, to go — I knew that from my contacts with the Iranians at the time.
There is a political agenda here, just as there is a technical agenda. On the Minister's analysis this was a technical problem which could be dealt with by the technical people and that there was no point in him, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste or anybody else becoming involved. He said we should not worry about it, that it was under control. That was the line taken by the Minister, the Taoiseach and everybody involved in this Administration, and the outcome of that strategy is that last Saturday a decision was taken to exclude three counties from the Russian market. The Russians demanded this. They put a gun to the Minister's head and he had to sign.
Why is it that in a country which is the biggest beef exporter in the northern hemisphere, producing 550,000 tonnes of beef, consuming only 50,000 tonnes at home, more dependent on the trade than anybody else, with a Government that came in on top of an economic boom of record trade surpluses and exports, it is regarded as unsophisticated or crass to suggest, when we have a problem with the biggest component of our food industry, that the Ministers or political heads of the relevant Departments should go to those countries to ensure that those with whom we are trading understand the political significance of this product to us and that we are prepared to do everything possible to assuage any fears they have and deal with them promptly and unreservedly? Times out of number I have spoken on this during Private Members' Business. This is only the second time since the issue of BSE arose that the Government has given even its own backbenchers an opportunity to discuss this issue, as they and backbenchers on this side of the House have been asking to do. It is only now, on foot of this debacle, that we are to have a debate that the magnitude of the problem merits. Everyone in this House is agreed that this issue is far more important than many of the issues we have debated during the past few months. Now we have the opportunity to have a debate, dragged out of a Fine Gael Taoiseach, a man who knows and is as dependent upon the rural constituencies as anybody else.
I am not prepared to accept that there was an inevitability about what happened last Saturday. As far as I can see there were no negotiations. Let me take the Minister through his speech, which is an indictment of his tardiness. It is probably the longest suicide note, in political terms, it has been my displeasure to have to listen to in this House in a long time. I expected the Minister to come through with a detailed analysis of the Russian situation. He said in July and August there was an increase in the incidence of BSE which brought the annual rate this year to 35, double last year's incidence. Between 16 September and 20 September a Bord Bia trade mission went to the Moscow Food Fair under the political leadership of the Minister of State, Deputy Deenihan. That must be the only time the Department of Agriculture in this Administration failed to get anything into the newspapers. Perhaps there was a reason for there being no publicity, a reason the Minister did not go into detail on the outcome of the trade mission led by Deputy Deenihan. Reading between the lines and from inquiries I can make as an Opposition spokesperson, it is clear that far from assuaging concerns, there were bigger problems in relation to the Russian trade after that delegation returned from Russia than there were before it went.
We waited until the issue was raised on the margins of a veterinary conference in Malta two weeks ago and were told that the Taoiseach had written a letter to Prime Minister Chernomyrdin about the matter. Russia is our biggest market outside the EU, and there has been a problem with that market since July and August. However, nothing happened until two weeks ago. In the agricultural press it was hailed as a great coup that, instead of the Minister going to Russia, Mr. Avilov and the Russian veterinary people were coming here. Mr. Avilov came here last week and was brought on a programme of visits during which the hammer hit us on the back of the head. The Minister says he was left with no choice and could not prolong the negotiations any longer; he did what he had to do and it was in the interest of the country. How could something be in our national interest when it is a national disaster? According to the Minister, he ran out of time. In his speech he suggested that he did not come on the scene until the Protocol was to be signed, and was not involved on Friday night or on Saturday morning. Even if he was, and wants to change the account of events again to suit his argument and claim he ran out of time and had to sign last Saturday or we would have lost our market, there was a problem since July and August and nothing was done. There was a problem when the Minister of State went to Russia from 16 to 20 September, and there was still a problem when the conference took place in Malta in early October, but nothing was done. Then two weeks ago a letter was written by the Taoiseach which it was supposed would solve everything. It did not, and what happened last week was the result of a tardy and complacent performance by the Minister.
The Minister's analysis of the situation is that this is not a political but a technical issue. Now the farmers of Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan are excluded from the Russian market, and not for any technical or scientific reason. To quote the Minister's words on radio yesterday, this is a farce. The Minister has come here to defend it and says it is beyond his control. The Minister's political epitaph will be: "I have created a farce which is not of my making". That is how the farmers perceive what has happened. That is how Government backbenchers see it also, although they will not say it. Those are the realities, and he will have to face the political consequences.
According to the Minister regionalisation will apply in Russia. He said that the Russians told him that was the way it would be and he had to accept it. He says this will not be acceptable in relation to any other market. How can he reconcile those two statements? Is he saying he will not accept it if the Iranians say exports to them will be subject to similar conditions? The Minister has already acceded to the principle and has no credible position left.
What would the Deputy have done?
From my ministerial experience I will tell the Deputy what I would have done.
I would like to hear it.
The Deputy will have to listen and he can reply when he gets his opportunity. I would make sure we would not have got into this position in the first instance. Even if I found myself in this position I would not decide in five minutes what would happen regarding the disease status of the national beef herd. The Russians have been moved to a higher subsidy zone as regards the price of beef and the level of subsidy it receives from export refunds. The European Union organised that for Russia. Where was the political leverage of the President of the Council of Ministers which spoke to Mr. Avilov about that matter? That is not a veterinary matter, it is a political matter. If the Presidency of the Council of Ministers meant anything it would have been used as leverage at a time when it was considered we would lose our disease free status of the national herd. There was no political contact on a person to person basis on this matter at any time. One cannot expect to have friends in court if one is not prepared to knock on the door.
In another capacity I was faced with a deadline. As Minister for Transport I was told by the civil aviation authorities, during the negotiation of an air transport agreement between Ireland and the US, that if I did not accept certain proposals the Irish would not be able to negotiate with the US until the following March, by which date the summer schedule of Aer Lingus would be in chaos. It was something we could not even contemplate given the circumstances and the difficult situation in Aer Lingus at the time.
I told the Taoiseach that the authorities were making an offer which was totally against our political position in relation to maintaining the status of Shannon and ensuring it was not ignored in respect of any future US transport agreements we might make with them. That was against a background of everyone telling me there was liberalisation on the global market, that the US do not make any exceptions, that the US would not contemplate any further suspension of a deal in this matter. We rejected that offer. Subsequently at a political level I met my counterpart, Mr. Péna, the Transport Commissioner, and we did a deal which ensured that for every plane that went into Dublin, a plane went into Shannon. That was a political decision motivated by political heads of Departments which ensured we got an agreement with which we could live.
The Minister's approach to this matter from 20 March has been that of a powerless politician, that nothing can be done and that he has to leave it to the veterinarians. Then he wonders why he has arrived at this débâcle. There has been no effective political input from the Minister or his superiors in Government to carry out what was needed. That is the position.
Is the Deputy saying that in the negotiations with Russia I should have threatened to use our leverage to get them a lower tier of subsidy?
No, I will explain how these things work. The higher subsidy status secured for Russia by the European Union was worth something to them. Its subsidy status was even lower than that of the African market and perhaps the Middle East at one stage. The Minister is President of the Council of Ministers. If ever the Irish Presidency was to mean something, this was the time to show that card but not to Mr. Avilov, who is in charge of the veterinary services.
What should I have done?
In July and August when there was an indication that Russia was about to impose conditions on our exports the Minister should have gone to his political counterpart in Russia and made him aware of the position. On that basis he should have been prepared to accept the Minister's assurances. If the Minister or the Government had been proactive on the traceability issue and able to show improvements in terms of filling in the gaps, which had appeared as a result of the BSE crisis, the Minister would have been able to assure our customers that in respect of every beast moved we had a record. The Minister made all the right noises but the reality is that he has not got one extra penny to deal with the largest animal disease problem that has hit this country since the Common Agricultural Policy. That is coming from a country which is a beneficiary of the Common Agricultural Policy. I am being asked why I am pushing this political boat out. I am pushing it because 15 people who are supposed to defend the interests of farmers meet every Tuesday morning in Government Buildings.
Fifteen and a half.
My apologies, 15 and a half. A dummy sits beside the Minister who chatters all the time outside the door. No political decision has been made by this Administration. Because of all the resources available to it, the Government has been able to overtax the electorate as it prepares to give back money next year. Tax packages of £700 million and £300 million have been talked about, yet on the Minister's figures, we do not have £14 million to install a computerised movement permit system which would deal with the position, rendering operation Matador totally unnecessary. Will we have another operation in Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan and if so, what will be its name? Will it be operation sell-out? One-third of our national herd is left outside the door. I am not happy about it and neither are Deputies Connaughton and Timmins.
Where are the Russians getting their beef?
I have pointed out three or four examples of what could have happened but did not happen. Those are the facts and no one can walk away from them. The Minister said he was the first man to get into Libya since Kubla Khan.
Lockerbie.
He was the first man to get into Libya since Lockerbie. The Minister said he would have the veterinarians over here having spoken to various people and that there would be no problem. There is no sign of them.
I have told the House about the Iranian situation time out of number but the Minister feels he should not listen. That is his decision but he must take the political consequences when it goes wrong. If the Minister wishes to put up a defence that this was inevitable, the only way he can convince anyone that that was the case is that he should have done everything possible at a political level in the interim. His flank is now wide open to attack because he has done nothing at a political level. He is so communitarian as President of the Council of Agricultural Ministers that when it comes to the Fischler proposals, he says: "we are the European surplus, we are the problem, so we had better take what medicine is going because there are very difficult people out in the foyer. I will talk to them through the microphone and see whether I can assuage them". That is the attitude and there is no recognition of a special position. Is the Minister suggesting we will have a 15 per cent pro rata cut across the European Union? Why should we take a 15 per cent cut since we are far more dependent on it than any other country? The special position of Irish agriculture has always been recognised within the European Union when much more difficult problems arose, such as the CAP reform issue, for the then Minister, Mr. O'Kennedy, and his successor, Deputy Joe Walsh. We saw what could be done by having the political competence to deal with the issue. The Minister is an innocent abroad. His political niavety has to be seen to be believed, he called a press conference on Tuesday last before having worked out the details. He said that unfortunately he had to exclude three counties but he saved four and that that was the best he could do. In reply to a question on the details, he said he did not know yet, that he was working on them. That was the Minister's press conference. We are supposed not to heap confusion on confusion and not to get hysterical but to say well done to the Minister who is doing his best. Our economy is going down the Swanee.
It is not going down the Swanee.
When I asked the Department how this would operate it said it was still being worked on. I acknowledge there are technical and other issues which must be dealt with, but there is little point in giving us half the story. The Minister will probably say that a beast bought by a County Meath farmer from a County Tipperary farmer 12 months ago is regarded as a County Tipperary beast as that was where he was first tested. It is a nonsense to think that all cattle in counties Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan will be kept inside the county boundaries and that there will be no movement of cattle throughout the country. The Minister knows this is a nonsense, yet he agreed to it.
We need to move this issue to a different political level. Despite his good intentions and working from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. the Minister is not able to deliver and does not know how to do the job. As I have been saying since 28 March, until such time as the Taoiseach and Tánaiste take responsibility for this huge problem it will not be solved.
The first breach of our defences has been achieved as a result of the consistent failure at political level since March to build up allies in our markets on whom we could call when we needed them. The Minister failed to build up allies and regarded the problem as a technical and veterinary issue. With all due respect to that profession, vets do not run the country or make political decisions; they help the Minister in whatever way they can at a technical level.
This Administration — many of whose members made unsubstantiated allegations over the years — must realise that it has to represent what it terms the "unrepresentables" and fight on behalf of the farmers, producers and PAYE workers who depend on this industry. All the resources necessary to deal with this problem must be put at the Minister's disposal. The Minister has yet to convince the Minister for Finance that a £14 million investment in a traceability system is a good investment. This sum is peanuts when one is trying to save a £1.7 billion industry, yet the Minister cannot get it because no one around the Cabinet table gives a damn. The Minister said he would deal with the problem, but we now see how far he has got. To use his own demeaning terminology, he has acceded to blackmail and a gun to his head. Never before have we been required to meet a deadline of 1 November on 17 October. Yet the Minister is still saying he can sort out the problem.
This issue is beyond the control of the Minister and it is time the Taoiseach and Tánaiste faced up to their political responsibilities, made the resources available and sent someone else to Russia. It was sad to hear the Irish Ambassador tell the Minister not to go to Russia as he was not welcome and the dust had not settled. There was much dust kicked in the Minister's face at Dublin Airport and he did not have much to say about that. If this débâcle is not sorted out soon the Minister's career in this portfolio will come to an end and he will be sent to greener fields elsewhere.
My party utterly rejects any attempt by the Russians or anyone else to create beef exclusion zones. The Minister stands condemned for his failure to confront that decision with scientific evidence and statistical data. By conceding to the Russians on this issue he has opened the floodgates. I challenge him to explain the basis on which the decision to impose a ban on these three counties was arrived at and accepted by him.
The agricultural statistics published by the CSO give details of livestock numbers in each county in 1995 and the incidence of BSE during 1996. The statistics confirm that BSE is occurring at a rate of one case for every 17,000 cows in County Monaghan, one case for every 39,000 cows in County Cork and one case for every 49,000 cows in County Tipperary. These statistics do not suggest that there is a BSE epidemic in any of these counties, least of all in counties Cork and Tipperary. It is difficult to discern the justice in including these counties in a banned list. No county should be included on a banned list but if there is such a list then these three counties should not be included on it.
The statistics give rise to some interesting questions. To date this year there has been one case of BSE for every 22,000 in County Wexford. This is much higher than the infection rate in either counties Cork or Tipperary. On the basis of the information publicly available, there is no scientific justification for subjecting any county to a ban on beef sales. However, if such a ban were to be imposed then counties Cork and Tipperary would be among the least suitable candidates for inclusion given the low incidence of disease in both counties.
Will the Minister as a matter of urgency place before the House all the relevant information on which the Russians based their decision to ban the importation of beef from counties Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan? There is no reason the scientific evidence and statistical data made available to the Russians should not also be made available to this House and the public. We have heard much from this Administration about openness, transparency and accountability. The Minister now has an opportunity to practise what his Government preaches. If he has nothing to hide then he has nothing to lose. I am highly sceptical that there is anything in the publicly available data which would provide a scientific basis to support the Russian ban.
The scale of the crisis facing us was summed up aptly yesterday by the President of the Irish Butchers' Federation when he described the latest debacle as, "the final nail in the coffin as far as the beef industry in this country is concerned". The farming community is well aware of the damage wrought by the BSE problem. Cattle prices have fallen by more than 20 per cent compared with a year ago, the value of the national herd has fallen by up to £1 billion, exports of beef to continental Europe have plummeted and prices for cull cows have collapsed, causing major knock-on problems in the dairy industry. Cows due for culling are now being retained on farms and their milk output is pushing the dairy industry into a very serious super-levy. When we reach the stage where farmers have to sell their cattle at a loss and dump milk in fields then it is no exaggeration to say that we are dealing with a problem on the scale of the economic war of the 1930s. It is not only farmers who will suffer if the current crisis is allowed continue or deteriorate further. The beef processing industry, already seriously underdeveloped, will lose any chance——
May I make a point of clarification?
I have approximately four minutes remaining and smart aleck questions being framed in Deputy Dukes's mind can be put to me next Thursday.
I take it the Deputy is declining the invitation.
I only wanted to know how much beef we export to Russia.
The Deputy has declined the invitation, let us hear her without interruption.
County Cork stands to suffer severely unless the Government cops on. If Deputy Dukes has energy left, he could use it to prompt his Minister to get on his bike and do something about the crisis confronting the country and allow me conclude my speech. I thank him for his interruption.
The Deputy does not even know what the wheels look like.
The beef processing industry, already seriously underdeveloped, will lose any chance of becoming a modern food industry generating substantial employment. Agribusiness will suffer and those supplying fertiliser, animal feed, veterinary products and other materials to the farming industry will be hit by the knock-on effect on every county.
Farming is the lifeblood of thousands of rural communities. In hundreds of small towns pubs, shops, merchants, garages, banks, post offices, doctors and solicitors depend for their existence on the spending power of farming families living in their immediate hinterlands. Farmers in my constituency are already suffering greatly due to the crisis and the Russian ban is the last thing they needed. I want to leave the Minister in no doubt as to the seriousness of the problem and the ruinous implications of this unjustified ban on the beef farmers of Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan.
There are major political questions to be answered about the degree of urgency with which the Government has handled the BSE problem in recent months. The Minister's initial response was one of complacency, he claimed everything would be all right and that there was no need to worry.
I was also accused of being a prophet of doom and gloom.
He did not consider it worth his while to turn up for a Seanad debate on the BSE issue on 21 March last. It was left to the junior Minister, Deputy Durkan, to give full voice to the smug and complacent attitude the Government has adopted in this entire episode. Pressed, as he was in the Seanad, on whether our system of controls is credible enough to preserve the reputation of the beef industry on the export or home markets, the Minister of State, Deputy Durkan, stated, "I think it is widely accepted that the measures in place have protected the reputation of, and market access for, Irish beef, which is accepted in 80 countries internationally". The Minister should tell that to the Russians.
We had further evidence of that complacency yesterday when an unnamed Fine Gael handler said Ireland had not lost one ounce of beef sales as a result of the Russian moves. Does Fine Gael really believe the Russian ban has no implications for our beef industry? Does he really believe Irish consumers will not be influenced by the decision of the Russians?
Debate adjourned.