Vol. 545 No. 3
17 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development if he has made contact with his French counterpart to defer the French Government's intended introduction of national SRM measures on sheep over six months from the start of 2002 until the relevant EU scientific committee has finalised its position; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30057/01]
I wrote to the French Agriculture Minister on this matter on 6 Nov ember last and I also availed of the recent Agriculture Council to raise the matter again with him.
I referred to the scientific research in the UK on this which was subsequently found to be flawed; to the fact that there was insufficient time before the implementation of the decree on 1 January 2002 to put in place appropriate measures to ensure the continuance of the Irish lamb trade with France and that trials in Ireland of the equipment designed to remove spinal cord from lamb carcasses produced less than satisfactory results.
Based on these concerns, I have requested the French authorities to withhold implementation of the decree pending further consideration of the matter by the EU scientific steering committee. Failing that, I have requested a postponement of the implementation of the decree to allow sufficient time for acceptable arrangements to be put in place so that traditional trade in lamb can continue between our countries.
Senior officials of my Department recently travelled to Paris and met their counterparts to discuss the matter and to explore ways of ensuring that any action taken by the French does not adversely affect our very important lamb export trade to France.
