The extension of the Russian beef import ban to more Irish counties was always on the cards since the principle of selectivity was introduced late last year. To describe it as "arbitrary" and "unjustified", as the president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr John Donnelly, did yesterday, echoed by Mr Brian Cowen, the Fianna Fail agriculture spokesman, who called it "another blow to our beef industry" showing that the Minister's earlier assurances were "worthless", may make good politics, but politics won't put another pound of Irish beef into the Russian market. That, as Mr Donnelly and Mr Cowen, and others who have condemned the present unpredictable situation would certainly agree, is where the national interest really lies.
Those who simply carp either do not accept, or prefer not to accept, that the world in which Irish beef is sold is one where the customer decides. The decades during which the farmer was a commodity producer, unconcerned about the ultimate consumer, are well and truly past, and to suggest otherwise does nothing to help the industry, or indeed trade relations. The Russians are free to choose, and if they demand a standard of product that seems unnecessarily stringent, that is still their prerogative, and the answer is to work to reach that standard. (The beneficiaries will include the Irish consumer.)
Fortunately, many farmers are already aware that they sell in a consumer led market. The latest development in the Russian trade will penalise some beef producers, large and small and at different stages of the production cycle - in an indiscriminate way. It will also lead to major pressures in the industry, because the effect of the extended ban is that 40 per cent of Irish beef will not be eligible for export to Russia. But the important thing is that the links have been maintained and overall there should be no significant loss in our total exports of beef to our largest market outside the European Union. There has also been an undertaking that counties will be removed from the banned list as and when BSE levels fall.
It is small comfort to farmers, some of whom may have their livelihoods threatened, that the Russian experience, far from being an unqualified disaster, is a salutary reminder of hard realities, and that working with the Russians, who intend to monitor BSE developments closely, will be of benefit for the future stability of relations with other countries which have cast a questioning eye on Irish beef. There is a limited range of options open to the Government: the high level mission sent to Moscow may have failed in its immediate aim but it appears to have been successful in the longer term objective of establishing guidelines for co operation. Diplomacy and openness about the facts, and the use of political contacts where appropriate (e.g. in relation to export refunds), are more likely to produce results than treating the matter as if it was only a failure of salesmanship and a lack of drive.
In this respect, however, the Government has laid itself open (not for the first time) to the charge of handling the facts opaquely by its decision two weeks ago to issue the figures for BSE once a month instead of, as heretofore, announcing cases as they occurred. There is absolutely no justification for this change in practice; indeed, everything is against it. Both potential export markets and the consumer at home, are being deprived of up to date information, and the inevitable result will be to create the impression that the Government has something to hide. Public health deserves much better than this, and the Minister must reverse the decision. Nothing is gained by maintaining it.