THE Minister for Agriculture told the Dail yesterday that he intends to travel to Russia at an early date to seek a relaxation of the ban on cattle from three Irish counties.

Mr Yates also said the Government had faced the stark choice of the closure of the Russian market to all Irish beef or the exclusion of three counties on a temporary basis.

"In the circumstances, we made the only possible choice. The closure of a market of the size of Russia would have been disastrous for the Irish beef industry at a very difficult time," said Mr Yates.

Opening a special Dail debate on the BSE crisis, the Minister said the Government had vigorously opposed the move, arguing in very strong terms that it had no scientific justification. The Russian side continued to insist upon categorisation, but they did agree to drop the number of counties to be excluded to three - Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan.

Mr Yates said that a total ban would have meant the Republic's trade being excluded from a market with an import requirement of almost 500,000 tonnes of beef. Contacts would be lost and competitors would get established.

"The loss of the Russian market would put us into safety net intervention and would mean a drop in producer prices of 4p per lb. The consequence of a build up of intervention stock could undermine Russia as a commercial market."

Mr Yates said that while he was prepared to reluctantly accept limited regionalisation in respect of Russia, as it was the Republic's most important third country market, he did not propose to accept it in other third countries.

"I fully appreciate the concerns of the farmers in these counties and I fully accept that the measures are not justified on scientific or other grounds. The meat from these counties is as safe to eat as that from any other county," the Minister added.

"However, I was faced with the stark choice of protecting the Irish beef industry and in the circumstances I am satisfied that I took the right decision."

Mr Yates said that contrary to earlier expectations, commercial sales of beef from the Republic had performed quite well.

The real culprit was BSE, said Mr Yates. "I accept fully that numbers are small and that it is not reasonable to draw conclusions from changes in low incidence figures. However, the discussions with third countries are held in a context that we are a country with BSE, albeit at a low level."

The Fianna Fail spokesman on agriculture, Mr Brian Cowen, described the exclusion of the three counties from exporting beef to Russia as "the latest and most catastrophic turn in a spiralling crisis in the beef industry.

He said that it was in the political area that the Government, including the Taoiseach and Tanaiste, had the primary responsibility. "It is in the discharge of their political responsibilities to the thousands of people depending on the beef industry that the Minister and Government have abysmally failed."

Mr Cowen added that the Minister could and should have prolonged the talks with the Russian authorities to play for time. This would have given the Taoiseach and Tanaiste the opportunity to make a political approach.

"Given the importance of relations between the EU and Russia, it is inconceivable that the country that holds the presidency cannot exert leverage. It is clear that the ineptitude and inexperience of the Minister was the crucial factor in this totally unnecessary mess.

Ms Mairin Quill (PD, Cork North Central) warned that Mr Yates would go down in history as the Minister for Agriculture who succeeded in repartitioning the country. "It seems that we are now to have a beef exclusion zone within the country."

The ban, she said, was totally unworkable and unenforceable in practice. By accepting the fiction of regionalisation, the Minister had opened the way for foreign customers to impose a total ban on Irish beef. She demanded that the Minister place before the House all the relevant information on which the Russians had based their decision.

Ms Quill asked how cattle movements would be controlled between the exclusion zone and the rest of the country. "John B Keane has told us how litigation arose in Co Kerry many years ago over a trespassing hen. Are we now going to have trespassing cows being smuggled from Glengariff to Kenmare in the middle of the night to beat the Russian ban?".