Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to speak on a matter about which I am becoming more worried by the day. In the past couple of days, a fifth case of foot and mouth disease was confirmed in Slovakia. In fact, the Slovakian Government has now declared an official state of emergency in the country. This originated with one case in Germany on 6 January, followed by identified cases in Hungary and now Slovakia. In Slovakia, it is happening in a wider territory of the country. There have been cases confirmed on the Hungarian and Austrian borders.

While I welcome the fact that the Minister for agriculture, Deputy Heydon, has urged vigilance within Ireland following the initial outbreaks, we need to go a step further. I propose that, if possible, the Minister comes to the House to address this issue. If that is not possible, I ask the Leader to relay to him the suggestion from this House to commence a targeted public awareness campaign which would particularly target people from Ireland who travel to or from the areas where cases have been confirmed. Such a campaign would ensure that people would be vigilant and aware of the consequences of possibly having come into contact with animals while in those areas and then visiting farms or coming into contact with animals when they return home. Indeed, some people may bring meat from areas where there are outbreaks.

The last outbreak of foot and mouth disease in this country was in 2001. Many of us here can remember the consequences of that at the time. We do not need or want to go down that road again. On this occasion, a stitch in time would definitely save the proverbial nine, and indeed more. We need an awareness campaign because many people outside the agricultural or political bubbles are not even aware that there have been cases. The general public, and in particular people who are travelling to and from those areas, need to be made aware in order that they can be cognisant of their movements when they return.