Ireland's beef industry, already hard hit by the BSE crisis in Europe, was banned yesterday from sending beef to Saudi Arabia, which last year bought £40 million worth.
A Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development spokesman said Saudi Arabia had added Ireland to a list of EU countries for which licences for beef would not be issued. He said the ban was not justified and the Department would do what it could to have it removed. The EU beef management committee is to meet in Brussels today to decide what action to take. The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, had a telephone conversation with the Irish Commissioner, Mr David Byrne, yesterday on the crisis.
The Irish Farmers' Association president, Mr Tom Parlon, said today was "D-Day" for the industry and Mr Walsh must secure a minimum price of 90p per lb for cattle at the meeting.
He said anything less than 90p for "O" grade - the most common grade of Irish bullocks - would be viewed as a failure by farmers who were experiencing great difficulty.
The committee will decide on the slaughter for sale scheme of all untested animals over 30 months; the level of intervention the EU will allow; and what farmers will be paid.
The chief executive of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Dr Patrick Wall, has suggested that instead of taking out healthy animals, the Commission should concentrate on removing older cows which are more at risk from BSE and so save millions of pounds of Irish taxpayers' money and reduce the incidence dramatically.