Beef industry sources said last night many difficulties would have to be ironed out before agreement could be reached on how to implement the EU plan to cope with the BSE crisis. The Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Mr Walsh, has set up a special committee to implement the test or destroy scheme for animals over 30 months, but so far there has been no agreement. There was broad agreement between the Irish Farmers Association and the Irish Meat Association, representing the beef factories, that the scheme would cost the taxpayer £400 million in the coming year.
It was clear from the statement made to an IFA organised meeting of beef farmers in Goffs, Co Kildare, by the IMA chairman, Mr Michael Behan, that the meat association was worried about a cull of one million animals.
He said neither Denmark nor the Netherlands were going to have a mass cull, nor Germany, which had received a derogation. France had decided to test all animals over 30 months and attempt to market the beef.
"There is a danger that we will have a huge cull and totally lose our place in the market," Mr Behan continued. "If we are out of the markets for a year, it will be very difficult for us to get back in again." In the event of a cull, the IMA did not want dedicated factories for this purpose. It wanted to be able to set aside different days for this purpose and continue to process beef in the same plants.
The IMA also wanted some form of Government underwriting on the price factories paid for beef to help them recover markets lost by the crisis, an increase in export refunds to non-EU countries and later, a realistic EU beef intervention price.
Dr Patrick Wall, head of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, said that as far as he could see, BSE seemed to stand for "Blame Someone Else". It was not the time for that because no one was blameless. However, the consumer was demanding elimination of BSE.