Northern Ireland's efforts to export BSE-free beef is being hampered by fear that the North will be used as a backdoor for the export of product from the rest of the UK, the North's Minister for Agriculture, Ms Brid Rodgers, said yesterday.
Speaking after the first official sectoral meeting on agriculture with the Minister for Agriculture in Dublin, Mr Walsh, she said there had been only six cases of BSE in the North last year.
Stressing that Mr Walsh had been very supportive in the attempts by the Northern authorities to have the low incidence of BSE in the North recognised, Ms Rodgers said there were still difficulties to be overcome in Europe.
"There is a fear in Europe that the North could be used as a backdoor. We are looking at the whole area of live-cattle exports, carcases and other product coming into the North from the UK," she said.
She acknowledged the support given to her by the Irish Commissioner, Mr David Byrne, but said that not only had the Commission to be persuaded that there was a very low incidence of the disease in the North but the member-states had also to be satisfied.
At a joint press conference in the Department of Agriculture, Mr Walsh outlined the areas which he had discussed with Ms Rodgers, who was accompanied by Mr Dermot Nesbitt, a junior Minister in the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
He said there had been a great deal of discussion on the changes being sought both here and in the North, from headage payments on animals to an area aid, or land-based, payment system.
The application from Ireland, he said, was still under negotiation and this was a common issue to the two parts of the island as the department in the North was also seeking changes in the system.
He outlined the programme for joint action which they had asked their officials to prepare for consideration at the next EU Council meeting on sectoral format in October next.
Mr Walsh and Ms Rodgers said the problem which faced the pig industry because of the lack of processing facilities following a fire in a plant in the North was also being addressed.
In addition, they said they had also agreed to reconstitute a steering committee on cross-Border rural development, which would promote co-operation in the implementation of rural development programmes.
It would also exchange information on experience and best practice in both jurisdictions on rural development and would continue to develop common approaches to cross-Border strategies and rural development research.
The Ministers said they recognised the ongoing work of their officials in their departments and agencies to develop collaboration on animal and plant health research, to identify those areas for enhanced co-operation and to produce a timetable for further work.
Mr Nesbitt said that it was good to see the working of co-operation on the island of Ireland.
He said he looked forward to seeing more co-operation in the future to the mutual benefit of people North and South.