I welcome this debate. The Dáil has learned a lot about bluetongue. People need to know anything you eat is safe and that it does not spread, like some diseases, mouth to mouth. I think that is very important for the public. I ask the Minister one thing, which is that public representatives are informed about where we are with Tunisia, Northern Ireland and the likes of Greece and some other countries he would be familiar with that we are exporting to. We are getting a lot of feedback at the moment from Northern Ireland and we are hearing this blame game going on. The North is saying it is not responsible and that it is the Irish side. We are getting the same type of stuff from the shippers. The Department staff need to be clear with us, so we know what is going on. In fairness, the Department briefed us before and we appreciate that but we need up-to-date briefings because there is a fair bit of over and back, and Scotland is being brought into it now, about what is going on with exports to Northern Ireland and the UK. We are fairly okay with some of the European countries but in others, it seems to be 14 days. The Minister is well aware of videos that were going around from some shippers. All that is needed is for the Minister to be up front with us, so we can give the message to other people because this is about the live cattle industry. If you do not have a good live trade, the problem is the factories and the dead trade will try to take advantage, and we do not want that to happen. That is all I would ask the Minister for. All of us, including Deputies Martin Kenny and Paul Lawless, met the Minister before and we appreciate that but we need to know for those guys what is going on because there seems to be a vacuum for those people.

Sentiment score: 0.09