Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 138: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the steps she intends to take to develop an all Ireland animal health regime; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26406/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I am fully committed to the development of an all-Ireland animal health strategy, the ultimate objective of which should be the free movement of animals on the island and the development of agreed policies to control animal disease and to facilitate trade.

There is already a long history of co-operation between the Administrations North and South on animal health issues. The Administrations have traditionally shared information at local and national levels on disease control and surveillance issues and have pooled resources to combat illegal movements of animals and animal products. The foot and mouth disease emergency of 2001 is a testament to the extent of co-operation and consultation that exists at official, ministerial and political levels.

The establishment of the North-South Ministerial Council offered an opportunity to build on existing co-operation arrangements and provided a framework for the development of an all-island animal health policy.

The main objectives of the council are to foster co-operation and to devise a common, unified animal health strategy for the island as a whole. This involves the convergence of animal health policies and the development of joint strategies for dealing with animal diseases. The ultimate objectives are to establish a common import regime and equivalent internal arrangements with a view to achieving free movement of animals and animal products within the island.

A total of nine policy working groups have been established at official level under North-South arrangements to take forward various initiatives. The remit of these groups includes TB and brucellosis, TSEs — BSE and scrapie, veterinary medicines, other zoonoses and animal diseases, disease surveillance, animal welfare, import and export of live animals and animal products, animal identification, traceability and cross-Border aspects of fraud. These groups continue to report progress in exchange of information and in implementation of initiatives aimed at policy convergence and the development of a common unified strategy for the island as a whole.

The main achievements to date are the development of a co-ordinated and complementary approach towards import policies and portal controls at points of entry to the island, the development of similar approaches to combat the introduction of animal diseases, the convergence of policies in regard to animal identification and strengthening of co-ordination and co-operation on issues such as contingency planning.

In addition to the above, there has been a significant deepening and strengthening of co-operation, information exchange and ongoing co-ordination between the two Administrations on a variety of issues such as FMD, BSE, avian influenza and cross-Border fraud while the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Council includes representation from DARD. On cross-Border fraud, the two Administrations have worked together successfully in a number of joint enforcement actions against alleged offenders and ongoing exchanges of expertise and information are taking place.

It is my intention to pursue this matter further at a political level with the Right Honourable Lord Rooker, following on from my discussions with Ian Pearson, Minister of State in Northern Ireland.