A team of EU inspectors is to visit Ireland shortly to look at BSE controls following the decision last week of the Union's Standing Veterinary Committee to step up national inspections in several states, Patrick Smyth reports from Brussels.
A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said last night it would provide any assistance it could but that standards in Ireland were as good as any in Europe.
Ireland had 74 cases, of BSE last year, up from 16 in 1995. The figures represent less than one in 100,000 of the Irish, herd but the absence of any convincing explanation for the upward trend is giving cause for concern in the Commission.