Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Crawford probably will be aware that a negative conclusion was reached in the European Parliament. The proposal now is that the Commission would give each member state the competence to make the decision itself. Unfortunately, that will not happen tomorrow either. It is also an important issue on which there has been some progress. We want to see further progress, as the Deputy rightly pointed out.

One important aspect of the specified risk material regarding BSE which would be welcomed by all sides of the House is that while the number of cases in 2002 stood at 333, that figure had reduced to 41 by 2006. We hope to see even further progress on such incidences this year.

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