THE CRISIS in the European beef industry was one of the greatest concerns affecting Irish people, the Fianna Fail leader Mr Bertie Ahern, said yesterday in Westport, Co Mayo.
"It isn't just farmers who are being affected", he said. "We have been meeting business people all over the country who are very worried about the knock-on effect of the BSE crisis."
Mr Ahern was giving his impressions of a three-week tour of the provinces by the 15 members of the Fianna Fail front bench, who had met some 80 delegations in Cork, Monaghan and Mayo.
"It has been a great exercise, meeting with people who are totally driven by a topic, who are totally informed on it, but who usually strapped for resources", said Mr Ahern. "Getting away from Leinster House and my office to meet these groups has given us a real insight into issues. You can never get the same feeling from reading a submission."
Referring to the beef crisis, he said: "Farmers have already lost
250 million this year and these are unsustainable. Nobody can take the hit the farmers are being asked to take."
He said that greater efforts should be made to find markets for beef outside the EU. Fianna Fail had sent a delegation to Iran and Libya.
Mr Ahern said that he had no hard evidence as yet that an IRA ceasefire was on the cards.
He said that the party's front bench had held lengthy discussions on the Telecommunications (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, which will enable Telecom Eireann to acquire a strategic partner. They had also discussed the threatened Aer Lingus pilots' strike, social welfare fraud and their proposed policy document on local government reform.
The party will debate the beef crisis during private members time when the Dail reassembles next Wednesday after the summer recess.