Minister says he is not compromised

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, has denied he has been "compromised" over the use of meat-and-bonemeal for feeding pigs on his family farm.

Mr O'Keeffe said he would assure Mr John Farrelly (FG, Meath) that "no minister would be compromised in dealing with any matter". Mr Farrelly had asked if the Minister would be compromised in negotiations with the French as a result of the disclosures about his own position on meat-and-bonemeal.

Mr Farrelly said: "The whole country feels he is compromised."

The issue arose when Mr O'Keeffe said that up to last week Ireland had won back markets in places such as France where exports had been down to practically zero and were back up to 50,000 tonnes.

Mr Alan Dukes, Fine Gael's agriculture spokesman, said the Government had stood by while French farmers blocked the importation of Irish beef saying it was a danger to the health of French consumers. "It took no action while that same danger to French consumers was cultivated on French farms."

Mr O'Keeffe said real problems had been created, but the State had to be careful about the way the situation was handled because France was a big market for Ireland.

Mr Willie Penrose (Lab, Westmeath) called for action at EU level against France and Germany, which failed to implement appropriate measures against BSE. Mr O'Keeffe could not say what action could be taken against both countries.

Mr O'Keeffe told Mr P.J. Sheehan (FG, Cork South West) that the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation was developing a sophisticated database to monitor a new genetic effect, Complex Vertebral Malformation (CVM) that could affect the Holstein breed of cattle.

Mr Sheehan said a number of bulls were named as carriers. "Jos, Mau, Lbo and Len are all top bulls and grandsons of Bell, the carrier of CVM", in the breed. Mr O'Keeffe said about 12 sons of carrier bulls were in the Irish test programme.