The Minister for Agriculture Food and Rural Development Mr Walsh today said that efforts were continuing to stress Ireland’s foot-and-mouth free status to international customers.
"Where restrictions had been imposed, representations were continuing to have them removed and where specific assurances had been requested, either in relation to products being exported or to the overall situation these have been supplied," he said.
A Department of Agriculture statement said that considerable progress had already been made in the US.
Mr Walsh has asked members of the Government who were abroad on St Patrick's day business to raise the matter with the relevant authorities wherever they were, the statement added.