The North's Agriculture Minister, Mrs Brid Rodgers, has rejected a call by the Assembly's Agriculture Committee chairman to seal off the Border following the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Co Louth.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, urged the Minister to call in the British army to close the Border in an attempt to prevent the disease from spreading. Mrs Rodgers, while confirming her Department had appealed to the security forces for help with Border controls, said she agreed with the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, that such a sealing-off would be impossible.
"Anyone who thinks it is possible to close the Border is not living in the real world . . . As far as I am concerned, in Ireland, north and south, we are all in this together. We sink or swim together, we work together and any language which is not helpful is not welcome."
Dr Paisley also criticised the Minister of State for the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Hugh Byrne, for not retracting an earlier comment describing Britain as the "lepers of Europe". Northern Ireland did not want to be tied in with the Republic in its effort to achieve regionalisation, he said.
Mrs Rodgers said she would make a strong case for Northern Ireland at Tuesday's meeting of the British standing veterinary committee. She also confirmed that a delegation of EU officials would be visiting the North on Monday to inspect the controls in place. "I would take the view that they would be, and should be, impressed by the manner in which we have dealt with this. We have taken absolutely no chances at any stage and when we think restrictions are necessary we have kept them in place."
She told the Assembly's Agriculture Committee of her fears that there might be an unidentified strain of the disease at large after veterinary scientists in the North said they did not believe the Co Louth outbreak was a result of the case at Meigh, Co Armagh. Her staff was working hand-in-hand with the southern authorities to track down the immediate source of the virus.
Mrs Brid Rodgers: said EU officials would visit North