The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has described as "bizarre" the Minister for Agriculture's decision to allow a resumption of fox hunting, which has been suspended since the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
Ms Aideen Yourell, the ICAB spokeswoman, said that from the end of this month the expert group on foot-and-mouth disease has given the go-ahead for 40 registered packs of dogs to hunt across farmland.
"It seems these activities can proceed as long as the hunters ask the farmers' permission to enter their lands, fill up forms saying where they hunted, disinfect their feet as they go from farm to farm and keep their dogs on leashes and don't allow people from the UK to take part," she said. "We find it quite extraordinary that while the Minister is constantly talking of vigilance and defence at farm gates, he would countenance activities which by their very nature, carry the highest threat to the bio-security on farms."
Meanwhile, the Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, said he was concerned that the overall visitor numbers for the first half of the year were down by 5.2 per cent - to 2.7 million - on last year. He predicted the attacks in the US would lead to the first annual decline in a decade.