THE Minister for Agriculture has secured agreement from the Pandoro ferry company for a new service to carry live cattle to the Continent. Although details remain to be discussed, the service is expected to begin within six weeks and will involve weekend sailings to Cherbourg.
Speaking at an IFA beef forum in Dublin yesterday, Mr Yates told delegates he hoped the service would improve access to European markets, while the Government continued its efforts to lift bans on Irish beef imports in Russia and the Middle East.
As part of these efforts, he said, the Taoiseach would be meeting the Russian Prime Minister Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, at Shannon today to discuss the ban.
Mr Yates said he would be pressing for Government compensation to match the expected £25 million pay-out from the EU to offset cattle farmers' losses due to revaluation of the Green Pound.
But he warned that there were no easy solutions to the crisis in beef prices. The key to solving the problem remained the eradication of BSE, but the profile of the disease here meant that the best that could be achieved in the short term was a "plateauing" in the numbers of new cases.
A European Commission delegation, including three vets, would be visiting Ireland next week, and the Minister said he was "very concerned at the powers they have". Because of this, he intended to bring forward proposals this week to pre-empt anything they might suggest and "to show that we are taking a lead in this matter.
He said he was determined to establish a beef quality assurance, scheme and would be announcing a "census date" later this year, when the movement of every animal would be recorded to make way for a computerised tracking system.
The IFA president, Mr John Donnelly, welcomed the Minister's announcements on political contacts, compensation and the new ferry service. However, he warned that his organisation intended making cattle prices an issue in the 29 rural constituencies in the forthcoming general election.
Winter beef producers needed a minimum price of 90p per lb to survive this spring, he said, and the key to this was the reopening of markets and the reversal of the recent 10 per cent cut in exports refunds.
