The public health warning issued about beef on the bone accurately reflects the concern of the Department of Health's CJD Committee, the Minister for Health has said. Speaking yesterday after a member had outlined the committee's advice, Mr Cowen said: "I have not been advised to give any precautionary advice other than what I spoke about. I have taken expert advice. I informed the public within 24 hours of getting that advice."
He was commenting after committee member Dr Catherine Keohane, a pathologist at Cork University Hospital, outlined the "unanimous advice" given to the Minister.
In an interview on RTE radio's Morning Ireland, she declined to indicate if the committee had favoured an Irish ban on beef with bone, but said it recommended "immediate arrangements should be put in place to ensure that no meat with the backbone should be sold to the consumer".
When asked if, in effect, the committee's advice was "stronger" than the Minister's action, Dr Keohane did not answer the question directly.
She said meat with backbone "should not be available for human consumption". Mr Cowen advised that meat with backbone should not be sold and stopped short of a ban.
The committee's advice, she added, was given to protect the consumer and make sure that beef was safe. These nerve structures "must not be available for human consumption" and she understood that the recommendation should apply to T-bone steaks, rib roasts and oxtail.
A Department spokesman last night said Mr Cowen's process of consultation went beyond the CJD Committee and included seeking advice from food safety experts.
Meanwhile, SDLP leader Mr John Hume said yesterday that farming in Northern Ireland was suffering its "greatest crisis" as a result of the European ban on British beef.
As farmers' unions in Britain described EU proposals to ban the sale of lamb on the bone as a "sick joke", Ulster Unionists and the SDLP united to press the farmers' case with the British Prime Minster, Mr Tony Blair.
Earlier, Mr Blair defended the decision to ban beef on the bone, insisting that had the government not followed the advice of the chief medical officer, "we would have been subject to criticism".