Ireland has been fortunate to have enjoyed the high status freedom from foot-and-mouth disease that has allowed its agricultural and food producers to export all over the world. It is easy to take that status for granted. Just one case of the disease here could effectively stop that £5 billion per annum trade in its tracks, disastrously affecting the export of beef, sheep, pigs, milk and dairy produce, processed products, confectionery and cream-based alcohols.
The grave danger posed by the disease thus affects all the people of this island, north and south, irrespective of whether they work in these industries. The Government must not hesitate to take whatever emergency measures are required, confident in the knowledge that they will secure public support for prompt and effective action to prevent the disease reaching these shores.
The crisis has deepened immensely in just a few days, as the spread of infected animals throughout Britain yesterday indicated it is rampant there and has been for some time. The geographical proximity to Ireland is deeply worrying, given the extent of movement between the two islands. A large export trade from Britain to the European mainland spreads the risk throughout the continent, which has hitherto been virtually free of the disease.
It cannot be acceptable if the authorities have been slower to respond than they should have been, even in such rapidly changing circumstances; but there is no excuse for delay after yesterday's depressing news. Governments will not be forgiven if political hesitation or fear of unpopularity mean effective action is not taken and the disease spreads when it could have been prevented.
Drastic action may have to be taken at national and supranational levels to protect animal populations and all the human industries that rely on them. It is not alarmist to say this. Foot-and-mouth disease is extraordinarily contagious but relatively easy to contain with scrupulous application of precautionary measures such as disinfectants and controls on movement of people and animals.
Above all, these require careful co-ordination between government departments and agencies and between them and farming and trading organisations, companies and individuals. It is in all their interests that the measures succeed. Penalties against non-compliance urgently need review, given the colossally increased mobility and interdependence that now characterises the EU agricultural and food sectors. The BSE crisis has brought that dramatically home to consumers, who now determine food safety policy in quite a new way.
If effective preventive action requires temporary compulsory disinfectants and controls on movements of people and animals, so be it. If it requires calling off sporting occasions such as the Cheltenham race week and the Wales-Ireland rugby match to counter the disease, that should be done. Political leaders will find they will gain more patriotic credibility from bold measures that succeed, than from half-hearted ones that fail to contain and control the foot-and-mouth virus.