The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) has been visiting Paris to secure support for Irish farmers, who he said would suffer most from the BSE crisis because of this country's dependence on exports and our small home market.
Mr Frank Allen's trip to Paris also coincided with a major protest by French farmers demanding urgent action from the French government, to tackle the drop in farmers' income.
"Ireland must pursue the special case of Irish farmers at European level because our farmers have no future unless we can continue to export our beef and cattle at realistic prices," he said.