THE Northern Ireland Forum has agreed to recommend a series of demands to improve the situation of farmers following the BSE crisis.
The resolution, proposed by Mr Nigel Dodds of the DUP, demands that Northern Ireland be recognised as having a special status for BSE purposes so that the worldwide export ban can be lifted.
It also recommended that the backlog of cattle in the 30 month slaughter scheme be eliminated that BSE `flagging' should apply to `herds', not `holdings'; that specific beef intervention for Northern Ireland be introduced; and that the Government provide fair and adequate compensation for beef producers.
Mr Dodds said that unlike the rest of the UK most cattle from Northern Ireland were exported and were particularly affected by the ban.
"If you cross the Border to another EU member state you will find that if a farmer had his herd culled he can, alter a time, restock and continue trading. That is not the case here," he said.
Mr David Campbell of the UUP proposed a "modest and constructive amendment", deleting the section of the resolution which condemned the NI Minister for Agriculture, Baroness Denton, and the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mr Douglas Hogg, for their failure to safeguard the Northern Ireland beef industry. Mr Dodds accepted it.
The forum chairman, Mr John Gorman, said he had received a reply from Baroness Denton to a query raised by the DUP's Mr Sam Clyde last week. Mr Clyde had queried the ban on the export of breeding cattle to the Republic, and Baroness Dent on had said she would soon be making a substantive reply.
Mr Clyde said he was glad to hear it. "Cattle are coming up from the Republic of Ireland and in a few months they will be eligible for the cull system, while Northern Ireland farmers can't get their cattle to market," he said.