Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to clarify the point I was making. We are on one landmass but we have two different standards. There are farmers who own land on both sides of the Border and who move the cattle over and back. Given all of that, the nature of animal health and welfare and that diseases can travel easily on land, it seems to me a totally unsatisfactory situation if any part of the island, under whatever jurisdiction, does not adhere to the highest standards. Even if we have all the protection that the Minister has referred to, including different marketing and so on, we are at far greater risk than we would be if they had exactly the same regimes that we have.

Given that we now have a Northern minister and that devolution seems to be the catchphrase from London, rather than adhering to the British standards, which by all accounts are not the high standards we are going for, I am suggesting that those in the North come up with a common all-Ireland top-level standard for everything produced on this island. This is not for political reasons but for practical reasons and because it is the most bio-secure thing we can do. I imagine that when the Minister speaks to his colleague in the North, she will be totally with him on this matter.