Overtime costs for Garda and Army personnel as a result of efforts to contain foot-and-mouth disease are running at around £10 million (#12.7 million) a month, the Minister for Finance said yesterday.

Addressing a briefing following the third meeting of the North/South Ministerial Council, Mr McCreevy said a more definitive figure for the costs of foot-and-mouth to the Exchequer would not be available until the crisis was over.

"If the outbreak is confined to Meigh in Northern Ireland and the Cooley peninsula in the South, it'll be well worth it. It will pay off economically if we confine it," he said.

Mr Mark Durkan, Minister of Finance and Personnel in the Northern Ireland Executive, said the Executive was not yet revising forecasts for growth as a result of the crisis. Over the past number of years, the Northern Irish economy has witnessed higher growth and was proving to be more competitive than any other part of the UK, said Mr Durkan.

At the meeting, the council welcomed the approval of the new Peace Programme by the European Commission. The programme, which would provide #536 million of funds for Northern and the Border region over the period 2000-04, was approved in Belfast late last month during a visit by the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Mr Michel Barnier.

The council also welcomed progress on the development of the new Ireland/Northern Ireland INTERREG III programme. Negotiations with the European Commission on this programme, worth #170 million to Northern Ireland and the Border region, are about to begin.