The beef industry moved swiftly last night following confirmation of the first case in the Republic of variant CJD to reassure consumers that Irish beef is safe.
The Department of Agriculture and Food stressed that the Republic had the most stringent controls in Europe to prevent contamination of beef, and that it was unlikely that the victim had caught the disease here.
"The unfortunate victim was said to be living in the UK at a very crucial time, from 1989 to 1995, when the BSE crisis there was at a peak. In 1992, in the UK, there were 36,000 cases of the disease," said the spokesman.
He also pointed out that Britain has had 170,000 cases and it was only in 1990 that it introduced rules on the exclusion from human food of risk materials from cattle.
In Ireland there were no cases of BSE before 1989, and less than 20 cases each year until 1996. Given the incubation period, the victim had to be exposed to infection before 1996.
The spokesman said that in 1996 the Department had introduced regulations excluding the risk material from food and feed, and that all animals from herds with BSE had been slaughtered and destroyed.
The Minister for Health, Mr Cowen, in a statement said he "wishes to emphasise that at the heart of the matter lies a human tragedy and would ask the media to respect the privacy of the patient and the patient's family. He does not consider it appropriate to comment on the personal details of the patient concerned."
The Minister said the hospital had adhered to the guidance of the CJD Advisory Group and relevant international advice.
A statement from the Food Board said it understood from the Food Safety Authority that the very sad situation regarding the case of vCJD would have arisen from exposure to contaminated product between five and 10 years ago.
"Given this information and the comprehensive and stringent controls currently in operation by the Department of Agriculture and Food, we would not anticipate that consumer confidence should be affected," it said.
However, Mr Peter Dargan, chairman of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, said that while he had no hesitation in recommending Irish beef to consumers, he would like to see the Food Board controlled by consumers rather than producers.
"It is unlikely that this unfortunate victim was infected by Irish beef, but we are in danger here of becoming too casual about the issue of food safety," he said.
"We have a rising number of BSE cases in the national herd even though controls were placed on feed and other SRMs some years ago. We are still turning up cases in cows of five years old," he said.
Mr John Smith of the Irish Meat Association, representing the meat factories, said he sympathised with the victim but it would appear that he or she had been living in Britain when exposure to the disease might have arisen.
"Any reports like these create difficulties for the industry, but I cannot see how it is relevant to our operations here given the incubation period and the fact that we have the tightest controls in the world on production."
The president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Tom Parlon, expressed sympathy with the victim and said he did not think the matter should cause a drop in consumer confidence.
"Irish farmers are absolutely committed to food safety and the highest standards of regulatory standards and testing and quality assurance," he said.
There have been 388 cases of the disease diagnosed in the Irish herd since 1989.