Rescheduled St Patrick's festival still on

The Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation today said that as of now the rescheduled St Patrick’s Festival goes ahead.

The celebrations, which were postponed due to the foot-and-mouth crisis, have been rearranged for the weekend of May 18th.

But in a radio interview earlier today, Mr Jim McDaid said thatif there was serious deterioration in the foot-and-mouth situation the festival plans would have to be reviewed.

The Minister said he hopes that with effective vigilance the Republic will remain free of foot-and-mouth and the St Patrick’s Festival will proceed as planned.

The situation is being reviewed on a daily basis after two further outbreaks in the North last weekend.

The Department of Agriculture has today introduced astatutory prohibition on persons who have been on farms or in various other locations in Britain and the North and other disease-affected areas from entering farms in the Republic.

They have also decided not to issue licences for imports of horses from the North for the time being and postponed the resumption of artificial insemination until April 23rd.

Sporting bodies have been asked by the Department to consider postponing matches and events involvingteams from Northern Ireland for the time being.