The Irish Ambassador to Egypt, Mr Hugh Swift, held a series of meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo yesterday in an attempt to discover when the ban on the import of live cattle to that country will be rescinded.
The Egyptians stopped the import of live cattle in January because of a rise in bovine spongiform encephalopathy in the Irish herd.
They have, however, continued to take Irish beef in large quantities since then.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, who was in Cairo early in May said all the political opposition to removing the ban had been dealt with and it was now a matter of "when" rather then "if the ban would be lifted.
