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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 30 Nov 2000

Vol. 527 No. 2

Private Notice Questions. - Egyptian Ban on Irish Beef.

As it is 3.50 p.m., I now come to deal with Private Notice Questions to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development on the Egyptian ban on Irish beef. I now call on the Deputies who tabled questions to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development in the order in which they submitted their questions to my office.

asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development what measures he proposes to take to regain access for Irish beef to the Egyptian market; and to reassure export buyers of Irish beef of the safety and quality of the product.

asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development the measures he will take to reassure foreign markets of the safety of Irish beef; the further action he will take to retain access for Irish beef to the Egyptian market; and the supports he will put in place to compensate farmers in the event of a further income loss.

asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if, in view of the announcement by the Egyptian authorities to suspend beef imports from Western Europe because of the BSE crisis and the serious consequence of that for the Irish beef industry, he will outline the steps he proposes to take to ensure that the ban is lifted as a matter of urgency; if he will further outline the Government's response to the new controls planned by the European Union; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I propose to take all the questions together.

First, I welcome the opportunity to bring the House up to date on the developments in relation to Egypt and the action taken by the Government to protect our major beef market there. I will also address the matter of the additional controls proposed by the Commission in relation to BSE which will be discussed at the Council of Agriculture Ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday next.

I begin with Egypt. As Deputies know, Egypt is Ireland's biggest market for beef. Last year, for example, 157,000 tonnes of beef were exported there at a total value of approximately £200 million. It is a market which receives and deserves enormous attention from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and Bord Bia in terms of supporting the commercial export and developing and maintaining excellent relations with the authorities there on technical and veterinary matters. I have visited Cairo on numerous occasions and have had very useful meetings with Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Goweili, and with the trade minister Dr. Boutrous-Ghali. I cannot overemphasise the importance of the Egyptian market for Irish beef. For this reason, the Government takes very seriously the recent action by Egypt to suspend the issue of import licences to Western European countries including Ireland. The reason they have taken this decision is to allow them take account of the developments within the EU related to BSE and to assess the measures and decisions being taken to deal with that situation. The developments I referred to relate to the situation in certain other member states and not to Ireland's.

I outlined the difference between our situation and that elsewhere in the EU during the debate in the House last night and the night before. The Government has taken immediate action to deal with the situation in Egypt. To begin with, our ambassador in Cairo has been in daily contact with the authorities there and has outlined the facts of our situation in relation to BSE to the relevant authorities. Senior officials at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development will travel to Egypt at the weekend for meetings with senior officials in Cairo. Ireland has an extremely positive case to make on BSE and these officials will ensure that the Egyptian authorities are made fully aware of that face to face.

I have spoken with the Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister, Dr. Goweili, this morning and have impressed upon him the importance of the market to Ireland, the quality and safety controls in place in Ireland and the guarantees which can be given to consumers of Irish beef. I have arranged to meet him after the Council of Ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday when a further range of measures will no doubt be put in place within the EU to deal with BSE. Even though these may not be necessary in Ireland, they will help to restore consumer confidence and eliminate much of the confusion which has arisen out of the recent BSE scares in Europe. I have explained this to Dr. Goweili and, as I said, I have arranged to meet him after the European Council meeting on Monday next. Furthermore the Taoiseach will also raise the matter with President Mubarak and is due to talk with him before the weekend. He will also impress upon the Egyptian leader the full facts about Irish beef exports and will ask him to avoid taking definitive action which may damage this trade.

Turning now to the general situation on BSE within the EU, I outlined earlier this week the background to this and how it has arisen. Clearly, the effect of BSE being found in member states who had not found it up to now, caused a great deal of confusion. The EU Commission made a series of proposals to be addressed at Monday's Council meeting. These proposals include the following: a temporary ban on the feeding of meat and bone meal to all farm animals, a requirement that all animals over 30 months of age are tested for BSE to enhance consumer confidence, a requirement that the current list of specified risk materials which must be destroyed and removed should now also include the entire intestine of bovines of all ages, a purchase for destruction scheme to remove from the food chain all cattle aged over 30 months unless they have tested for BSE to ensure additional guarantees and to rebalance the beef market, a flexible handling of public intervention to address the current drop in producer prices and to raise the advances paid for beef premia from currently 60% to 80% in order to take financial pressure off beef producers.

These proposals are being examined currently by a number of bodies including the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, the EU Standing Veterinary Committee, by the various scientific bodies there and by the European Commission in Brussels. The market elements will be considered by the EU Beef Management Committee tomorrow in Brussels at the beef management meeting. The package of measures will be presented then for decision at Monday's Council meeting. The measures proposed have enormous implications, both financial and environmental, and they need very serious consideration. My overriding concern in all of this is to ensure that the health of the consumer is protected. We already had an array of measures in place as I outlined to the House last night and the night before. These have been objectively validated and endorsed by outside agencies including our own Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the EU Commission, the Scientific Steering Committee in Brussels, the OIE in Paris and importing countries. All 60 odd countries importing from Ireland, including Egypt, must see for themselves that our controls are in place, that they stand up and that they are comprehensive.

I have also decided to introduce further measures and to commence testing of older cattle from the earliest possible date. I am convinced that consumer protection and confidence are absolute prerequisites for food production and marketing. Once consumer confidence in beef is restored, which should be achieved in the shortest possible time, market stability will return. We have experience of this over the past ten years. Typically, it took some time to return, perhaps six to 12 months but it has returned. It is the tragedy of this situation that, having had difficulty in 1996 and having built up the markets again over the past couple of years, including Egypt, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, we have this difficulty once more which has rocked consumer confidence.

However, recent developments have caused serious problems within the market and these can only be dealt with by emergency measures and we need several of those now. Already export refunds have been increased, the APS scheme for cows has been introduced but more is definitely needed for farmers and the industry. I will be pressing in Brussels for appropriate measures which are properly targeted and tailored to meet the requirements of Irish farmers and the Irish cattle and beef industry.

I endorse the primacy being given to consumer health issues. I also thank the Mini ster for having sent to me today information which he promised me at the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine yesterday.

How widely known were our BSE control measures to export customers before these events happened? The Minister has supplied the House with a list of these measures and has repeated it just now. The Commission has proposed the testing of animals of 30 months and over from next July. Why has the Minister not proposed that we start it at an earlier date? Will the Minister be specific in terms of the approach he intends to take to the Commission's intention to look at the use of intervention mechanisms to support the market, and to the proposals for the purchase for destruction of animals of over 30 months, and does he intend to make any proposals for an improvement of the income support measures proposed by the Commission which, so far, are limited only to raising the advances of beef premium?

Our controls are widely known and very widely dispersed in the market place. As Deputies will be aware, it is difficult to get general public awareness through the media because bad news is easier to disseminate than solid concrete news. Bord Bia, through its network in those countries, the trade itself and its agencies, has disseminated the information. There is hardly another country in the world that has as much public support of its industry as Ireland has. At all the trade missions to which I and my predecessor have travelled, including those in third countries, information about those controls are in the hands of the people there. They are widely known, but they are better known to the trade than to the general public.

In relation to the extra testing, in Ireland we have had controls in place ahead of the other member states, particularly those that have a problem now or whose problem has now been officially declared. The ENFER scientific test has been available in Ireland for some time, and we have been using that on a pilot or random basis. We are now going to crank that up very considerably. There are three such prion tests, and we will be looking for tenders for the cheapest possible one. The cost up to now was 60 or about £50 per test. In negotiations in recent weeks, when we took a decision to increase the level of testing, we brought that down to about £18 per test. Given that we have 750,000 cattle over 30 months of age which need to be tested, at £10 per test that would amount to £7.5 million a year for testing alone. However, that is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem relates to the logistics. This test is done post-mortem and the result is available four hours later. The test is done in the plant. The carcase is subdivided, and each part of the carcase must be followed half a day later. There is a fair amount of logistics attached to the test. Nevertheless, we are committed to introducing it and scaling up the pilot operation that currently exists. No other country in Europe is as advanced as we are. At the last meeting of the Council of Agriculture Ministers a decision was taken to introduce this test on 1 January for animals at risk and then to extend it from 1 July. The reason 1 July was decided upon was that some countries did not have the laboratories, the testing equipment or controls that we already have in place in Ireland. We are cranking up this test very quickly and we hope to have it in operation once the logistics have been sorted out. We are in discussions with the company that carries out the test, the farming organisations and the trade with a view to putting it in place.

Will it be before 1 July?

It will be before 1 July because we already have the random test in place. It is a question of scaling it up quickly. We hope to have it comprehensively in place early in the new year. The company has informed us that it can scale testing up to several thousand per week very quickly. That will not be the case in many other countries because they will not be in a position to do that. We are in a position to do it, but there are logistical problems within the plants. It is not as easy as it seems.

Market supports will be critical. The proposals before us for next Monday refer to advances from 60% to 80%, and to intervention. Intervention already exists as a safety net but it brings in only about 73p a pound, which is of no use to the farming community. I will look for realistic and effective intervention because it is estimated that if this problem continues there will be in excess of 200,000 head of cattle to be disposed of between now and Christmas, about 75,000-80,000 tonnes. A mechanism would be needed to utilise that. Currently that mechanism is intervention. However, what is needed is intervention at a realistic price, intervention without weight restrictions, because intervention with weight restrictions would be ineffective in Ireland, and other supports for farmers who have lost a considerable amount of money because the price of steers has been reduced by about 10p a pound and the price of cows by about 28-30p a pound.

The very serious matter of waste disposal must be confronted by the local authorities and the Department of the Environment and Local Government. Proposals on food safety mean eliminating further risk material. There is a "buy and destroy" proposal in the event of a testing mechanism not being available. We simply do not have facilities for such disposal because already fallen animals have been brought into the chain. There is a proposal for a total ban on meat and bonemeal in animal feed. There will be additional testing in addition to the matter of waste disposal. The meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday will be an extremely important one for the Irish industry and for the future of the beef industry as a whole.

Given that the Minister has said on a number of occasions that the Egyptian market is so important, and given that the problems in Europe developed in the past two weeks, what contact did he make with his counterpart in Egypt in the past two weeks in an effort to avert this problem? When and where does the Minister propose meeting the Egyptian Minister of Agriculture? When and how will he contact the President of Egypt? Does the Minister accept that the price of beef has been slipping for a number of weeks? What action has he taken in that time? Is he aware that factories have stopped killing? Has he received any information, and can he give us the information as it now stands with regard to the situation on the ground? Which factories have stopped killing since yesterday? Does the Minister accept that farmers are facing serious hardship, with Christmas coming up, and that some factories may not open until after Christmas? What immediate action does he intend to take to assist families and workers at the factories who may be in danger of being laid off?

This difficult matter arose in France because two animals from an infected herd, even though the animals in question were not infected, got into the food chain. Suddenly France had to confront this problem. The French agriculture Minister proposed a strategy to address the problem but President Chirac had other ideas which he broadcast on public television. The matter received a great deal of publicity and France and Spain took unilateral action on the issue. The Spanish action affected Ireland because a ban was imposed on the breeding of females over 20 months of age. It was decided at the meeting of the Council of Ministers that no further unilateral action should be taken and that a Union-wide approach should be adopted. Consumer confidence subsequently stabilised, although it was not fully restored.

Germany's problems created a huge scare once again and emotions ran high. The Egyptians monitored the publicity of the issue in Europe in which its media took an interest and yesterday an abrupt decision was made to suspend import licences. We did not receive any advance warning. Our ambassador in Cairo was in daily contact with the Egyptian authorities. It is normally necessary to obtain a decree in Egypt to get a complete ban but that did not happen. A decision was taken to temporarily suspend the import licences. Bord Bia personnel, who are currently in Egypt, are keeping in daily contact with us.

I maintained close contact with farming organisations and industry representatives and it was generally felt that it would be preferable not to go to Egypt before a problem arose because that could have created difficulties which did not exist. I spoke to Dr. Wali, the Egyptian agriculture Minister, this morning and he informed me that the Egyptians do not have a problem with Ireland and that the decision to suspend licences is a temporary measure until the confusion in Europe is resolved. He informed me that he would await the outcome of the Council of Ministers meeting due to be held on Monday. I agreed to meet Dr. Wali and his senior officials following that meeting. I do not know when that meeting will take place because the weekend falls on different days in Egypt. It is the weekend in Cairo today and tomorrow and nothing is happening there. In addition, this is the middle of Ramadan. Even if I were to go to Egypt today, I would not be able to meet anyone. The Council of Ministers meeting will probably go on through the night on Monday but I intend to travel directly to Cairo when it concludes. Arrangements have been put in place for the Taoiseach to have a telephone conversation with President Mubarak over the coming days.

I outlined the information received from Bord Bia yesterday at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine to the effect that 30,000 tonnes have been processed in the factories in recent weeks. I have not received any indication that factories have stopped slaughtering this week but they have been processing in expectation of future markets. The French, Italian and Egyptian markets have dried up although exports which are en route to Egypt will continue. Problems should not, therefore, be experienced for up to two weeks.

Is the Minister unable to tell me what is happening today?

The factories continued to take in cattle and process them up to this week, although that may seem unusual in the face of such difficulties. As recently as yesterday, a delegation from the Irish Meat Association visited the Department. The slaughtering of animals clearly cannot continue because factories cannot continue to process and store meat for markets which do not exist at present.

The problem must be addressed European-wide. There is no alternative but to put in place an intervention mechanism because people in our major markets have stopped eating beef.

Our controls are among the strictest in the world, which is a source of reassurance to consumers at home and abroad. The primary concern is that people would have confidence in the safety of our food. Until yesterday, there was a price decrease of approximately 10p per pound in cattle sold over the past two weeks. Has the Minister estimated what impact the suspension of trade with Egypt will have on the price of beef, assuming trade will continue in the marts? What will the impact be on a mart which has an annual turnover of £200 million? The impact will obviously be very serious for our 100,000 beef producers, particularly winter fatteners who will become virtually impoverished if this ban continues. Some of those people stand to lose up to £8,000. What special measures, aside from intervention, can be taken to address this matter? Other countries have obtained EU assistance to help to sustain farm families whose livelihoods are threatened.

Why was a co-ordinated EU strategy not put in place to ensure that a united approach was adopted to control BSE, particularly in view of what happened in Britain? We led the way in regard to BSE controls. The testing of all animals over 30 months and the temporary ban on meat and bonemeal will be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the Council of Ministers. The Taoiseach indicated this morning that the Minister will support those measures. Why did he not support them last night in the national interest during the debate on the Labour Party motion? Given the comments made by Commissioner Byrne at a news conference yesterday, we should impose a complete ban on meat and bonemeal.

What is being done in regard to carrying out further research on BSE and vCJD? What funding is being provided by the Departments of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and Health and Children? Is the Minister satisfied that an adequate number of staff is devoted to the research task which is an essential one if we are to continue to reassure consumers?

The Minister listened last night to Members' views on the problem of disposal. Are there other recommendations of the advisory committee set up by the previous Government which the Minister took on board and which could be implemented? If so, when are we likely to see them implemented?

The loss of the Egyptian market would be enormous and constitute a real setback and body blow to the industry. We are talking about 157,000 tonnes or 450,000 cattle. The market was growing over the past couple of years following the setback in 1996. For the first half of this year we exported 93,000 tonnes, which would amount to up to 500,000 head of cattle in a full year. Losing that market would be devastating. Ireland was by far the most effective exporter to Egypt, supplying two-thirds of their trade. That is why we looked after the market and sought to support it in every way.

The Deputy asked what package might be put in place. We will be seeking the introduction of supports as farmers have lost heavily. I have already given figures of 10p per pound, with the cow beef market having been virtually wiped out. The French introduced a package, a copy of which I gave to Deputy Dukes, but there is not much in it. It talks about giving some support to workers in factories, etc. We are studying that package as well as having consultations with the farming organisations, who are again coming to the Department this evening. We want to be properly focused going to Monday's meeting and to have the best line of negotiation.

We have a comprehensive list of controls which I circulated to all Members this morning. I have no difficulty with additional controls. The hall mark of the authorities in Ireland has been to introduce and implement controls in line with developing knowledge, and any recommendations made by the Food Safety Authority, which has been in existence since 1998, and the scientific steering committee, have been put in place. If the Commission recommends a total ban on meat and bone meal then we will implement it. However, there is a difficulty in terms of disposal. Up to now we did not feed meat and bone meal to ruminants. There was a voluntary ban in the poultry industry and only a negligible number of pig producers had a licence to feed meat and bone meal. Therefore, 99% of the meal was exported, which could be described as an Irish solution to an Irish problem. We had a successful export market for the meal, but with a total ban in Europe there will be no further export market and the question of disposing of 150,000 tonnes of meat and bone meal arises.

We have gone to the cement industry and pigmeat plants to ask if they will use the meal in their incinerators, but we have had no support. This matter cannot be dodged any longer and I was pleased that there was general consensus in the House that we must address it. I was pleased to hear Deputy Sargent talking about veterinary disposal. I asked him what he meant afterwards and he said he was referring to disposal of livestock or bovine material and that the Green Party would have no difficulty with such disposal. I do not know why it should cause problems for the Green Party, but I was pleased to hear Deputy Sargent's comments.

The real problem with meat and bone meal is avoiding cross contamination. We have satisfied all the authorities that we had avoided that in Ireland. The EU Commission communiqué from Commissioner David Byrne said "I have repeatedly said that the existing Community controls, if strictly implemented, ensure that meat and bone meal are safe. Furthermore, the scientific steering committee yesterday once more confirmed this view". There is no difficulty, therefore, with the feeding of meat and bone meal to non-ruminants. It is a bit like our depopulation or slaughter out policy – if it contributes to increased consumer confidence we have no difficulty with it.

Research is very important and my view is that we do not have enough research into this matter. The first outbreak in Ireland was one animal in 1989 and the learning curve has continued for the past decade. We are introducing additional controls. Consumers are correctly saying we are introducing a further control and are now saying beef is again safe. Typically, Ministers for Agriculture are seen eating burgers and steaks saying they assure consumers the product is safe. Now we are saying we have additional controls and that the product is extra safe, which tends to reduce the credibility of everybody. Therefore, research is vital. We carry out some research in Ireland, mainly in UCD, but it is not enough. We are involved in joint research with the UK and pool resources in terms of EU research. However, far more research must be done. For example, it was only in October 1996 that my predecessor, Deputy Yates, earmarked very substantial amounts of money for modernising our rendering industry and the equipment used. He ensured the machinery in the industry could treat meat and bone meal at 130º Celsius at three bars for 20 minutes, which is the key. Up to then research was sparse and it was only at that stage such a recommendation was made. It was a very good decision.

We have been pioneering those controls but are still lumped in with the other western European countries as if we had done nothing.

I support the Minister and the efforts he is making to deal with the current European crisis in the beef industry. The Minister will be aware of the serious impact this will have, especially for beef producers. I am particularly concerned about small beef and cattle producers who in less serious situations are very adversely affected by such incidents. Will the Minister keep in mind that the loss of the Egyptian market in particular would have a very serious detrimental effect on the store cattle business? Will he given some assurance that every effort will be made to minimise the effect of that on small cattle producers?

There is a necessity to allay the fears of consumers in general about BSE and I support the view already expressed that it is necessary to carry out additional research in this area. How much meat and bone meal is being imported? How much is in storage and how much is used? Is it advisable at this stage to ban the use of meat and bone meal until such time as its safety can be ascertained and assured?

On numerous occasions I sought to have some type of hardship fund put in place for farmers affected by BSE, in addition to the normal supports.

Last year, 140,000 tonnes of meat and bone meal were produced in Ireland, 2,000 tonnes of which were used in Ireland. That gives an indication that banning it would not be the end of the world.

The problem is disposal. We do not have a difficulty with disposal based on any scientific recommendations from any scientific body. In 1990 the importation of meat and bonemeal in feed to ruminants was banned.

Consumers need every possible assurance as to the safety of the meat they eat. In the case of prime steer beef, from steers of two to two-and-a-half years old, on the Egyptian market, which is the key market with which we are concerned outside of Ireland, there has not ever been a case of BSE. There is an urgency about seeking to encourage farmers to produce cattle up to 30 months of age for the market and for consumers. Retaining large cattle for 40, 42 or 45 months will not be the way of the future. There is no doubt we will have to process cattle and make them available to consumers at a younger age. Prime steaks and prime beef is the meat we eat in Ireland also. There has not ever been a case of BSE in those cattle.

Professor Michael Gibney of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland from Trinity College, also chairman of the BSE food safety group and a member of the EU scientific steering group reiterated this morning that our controls were entirely satisfactory; so also did Dr. Pat Wall, chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Nonetheless, members of the media, as late as today, said there were 20 cases of BSE this month, the highest on record. That was a nice multi-coloured graph to add a little more emotion and scare people. I am sure 20 members of the human species died of various ailments during the month also, some related to various activities and yet did not merit the same headline. There is an enormous difficulty here for the Departments of Health and Children and Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, the trade itself, for farmers in getting the positive image across. As late as today radio and television referred to this matter as "mad cow disease"– to heighten emotions. It is a BSE matter, and "mad cow disease" is terminology we could do without.

To answer the Deputy's question, everything is being done that can be done to restore confidence. At Monday's meeting of the Council of Ministers I will seek appropriate measures and appropriate market interventions that will have an impact on farmers, especially smaller farmers because they have little else. Not only had the finishers a bad year this year but they have had several bad years. To be honest I do not know how they stay in the business. They bought expensive store cattle and are in a dire situation. I will seek measures that will be helpful to them.

Does the Minister accept this is the most serious situation Irish livestock farmers and the industry have been in for many years? Is this the same Minister who sat on this side four years ago and had all the answers? The Minister said the factories are taking in cattle. However, I would point out that the numbers being taken in are very small and the price received is extremely low. If this continues how many of these farmers will go bankrupt? The Minister said he would speak to some people by 'phone and to others on the margins of meetings etc. A major effort should be made by the Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach. I recall the advice the Minister gave when BSE first came to notice. He had all the answers. How much beef is being sold into Iran or, if not in operation, how soon will that market be reopened? Can he guarantee that the weight restrictions imposed by one of his predecessors in Brussels will be increased, otherwise intervention will be meaningless? Will the Exchequer pay a sum of money towards a rescue plan for farmers? What will it cost the nation if the workers in the factories lose their jobs and have to go on social welfare? Is it not time we bit the bullet and made sure there was some provision for dealing with waste material? I have been trying to deal with this issue for years and I am pleased to hear the Green Party is supporting us. There have been all sorts of scurrilous efforts to stop this being dealt with here. What is it costing to get rid of specific materials? What is it likely to cost when all the other waste is added? A national decision was taken to deal with this in a positive way so that we can use it for the provision of power as well as getting rid of the problem.

The Minister is now in a position to commence an assessment of the losses being suffered within the beef industry. We all agree the beef industry has been the poor relation of Irish farming in the past five or six years and will move from being under pressure to being extinct. When does the Minister plan to put a rescue package in place? He has given an indication that he will meet farming organisations as early as this afternoon. From the Oireachtas, he must be in a position to send a strong signal to the farming community, whose livelihoods are disappearing, that he will provide financial compensation. There is a consumer side to the equation which is of huge importance. There is also the commercial side from the farmers' perspective. Will the Minister announce at an early date that he will put money on the table to compensate those farmers in the short-term?

Will the Minister agree we now know that we are facing the certainty of serious financial losses and serious financial hardship for a great many farming families? Will he agree that there is nothing like that certainty on the other side of the coin? Will he agree that so far we have heard only vague statements about intervention, including a proposal from the Commission about increasing the advances on premia – which farmers are due to be paid in any event. The only measure being proposed by the Commission that seems to meet any part of the problem is the purchase for destruction of animals of over 30 months, which might help the price of cows. Will the Minister agree that what is needed from the European Union and the national authorities are specific, positive, quantified measures to deal with the dramatic income losses facing farming families?

Will the Minister agree this is an opportunity for Irish farmers to concentrate on the production of high quality beef from an integrated system of two or two-and-a-half year old beef to secure the market? I will refer to a related topic, the disposal of fallen animals. Will the Minister outline his plans for the £11 million in respect of fallen animals, which is very important?

What will the Minister do to keep the factories open and working?

I accept this is a very serious situation. Commissioner Fischler said last night that this problem was hitting Ireland harder than any other member state because of our vulnerability. At least he realises that aspect.

An emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers will take place on Monday next to address the issues outlined by Deputies. These include the process for destruction, the temporary ban on meat and bone meal, testing of all animals over 30 months, flexible public intervention and increasing the 60% to 80%.

There is no joy in that for farming families.

No, but these are the Commission proposals which will be discussed by the Council of Ministers.

Deputy Crawford raised the issue of the amount of beef being sold to Iran. No beef is being sold to Iran. Even though the restriction on sale to Iran has been lifted, it has not purchased beef. The same applies to Libya where the restriction has been lifted. It has sent a request for tender. The trade here has sent the tender documents to them and they are awaiting a response.

Will the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, go there?

I ask Deputy Crawford to resume his seat. We have had an orderly Question Time which has gone on for much longer than usual.

The Deputy raised the issue of waste disposal and welcomed the fact that the Green Party is prepared to address this issue. What is needed is planning permission and an EPA licence. There is a meeting at 5 p.m. with the farming organisations to finalise the assessment of the consumer confidence package, compensation package and our negotiating position for Monday.

Deputy Penrose asked about fallen animals. The £11 million will go towards transport costs and vehicles. It would not be a pleasant experience to travel with open vehicles carrying fallen animals. The rendering cost must also be considered. There will be a cost of £20 to farmers, which has been agreed with the farming organisations. A sum of £28.5 million was mentioned of which £14.5 will be paid by the Exchequer. No other country has introduced such an agri package in good faith. I am aware it will not address the problem, but it was a gesture of good faith.

Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.

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