Northern Ireland's candidates in the European elections yesterday focused their attention on the temporary ban placed on beef exports from Northern Ireland to Europe.
The North's Department of Agriculture has imposed the ban in response to concerns expressed by the EU Commission about a failure in the North's cattle-tracing computer system, which resulted in the export of 19 cattle not classified as free of BSE contamination risk.
The SDLP leader and sitting MEP, Mr John Hume, called for maximum efforts to secure the lifting of the ban.
"I think that the Department of Agriculture is taking the correct steps in order to ensure that the ban will be as short as possible. My understanding is that this matter is being looked at very seriously in Brussels at the moment."
Mr Hume yesterday met farmers in west Tyrone and heard at first hand how the crisis in agriculture is affecting them and their families.
"The farmers of Northern Ireland really didn't need this to happen after all they have been through," he added.
The Ulster Unionist, Mr Jim Nicholson, also a sitting MEP, said he had been in contact with the European Commission about the current crisis. According to Mr Nicholson, "election or not" the three MEPs for Northern Ireland might have to go to Brussels to find a resolution by the end of the week or "our markets may be lost".
The North's third sitting MEP, the Rev Ian Paisley, yesterday called for the Northern Ireland Assembly to be recalled to discuss the latest "body blow" to the North's beef industry. "What is the use of an Assembly when people are not allowed to talk?" said Mr Paisley.
The Alliance party leader, Mr Sean Neeson, today visits Magherafelt, Co Derry, Omagh, Co Tyrone, and Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. He yesterday urged that the European election should not be turned into a "circus of splits" within unionism and nationalism.
"The Alliance Party is fighting this election on European, plus bread and butter, issues. We are the only major party in the election to represent the centre and are not bogged down in the usual tribal politics, which have caused us all the problems of the past," he said.
The Sinn Fein leadership was out in force yesterday to support their European Parliament candidate, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin. The Sinn Fein President, Mr Gerry Adams, and Assembly members Mr Martin McGuinness and Ms Bairbre de Brun accompanied Mr McLaughlin.
Outlining Sinn Fein's election manifesto, Mr McLaughlin said: "If successful, we see ourselves forming alliances with progressive groups such as the red-green alliance and socialist groups which are coming out of southern Europe".
Mr McLaughlin said Sinn Fein was campaigning for first-preference votes, "but we would advise our voters to give their No 2 votes to John Hume. We are aiming for the third seat and we see the split in the unionist camp as a significant opportunity for us to win that seat."
A Sinn Fein Assembly member, Dr Dara O'Hagan, said: "There is a very good chance of two nationalist seats, and I would urge the nationalist community to give us their vote, either first or second."