Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-04-03-Speech-2-185"
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"en.20010403.8.2-185"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, many questions have been asked today and time does not permit me to repeat them, particularly those questions asked by my colleague, Liam Hyland, and indeed colleague De Rossa in relation to the proportionality of the response. Could this outbreak have been prevented? Will consumers lose confidence in our food? Are our rules and regulations concerning animal movement and animal traceability all that they should be? Are farmers' incomes such that they can afford to call out a vet when in doubt and have the European Commission and the national responses been adequate to the challenge? There will be more time for those later.
Then there is the complex question of vaccination, even if it is not on the Irish agenda. In the last 18 months, 34 countries have reported outbreaks. To maintain a disease-free status a country has to be free of FMD for at least 12 months, an effective system of surveillance must be in place and all regulatory measures for the prevention and control of FMD must have been implemented. A policy of strategic ring-vaccination around outbreaks may be appropriate in certain circumstances even though we still cannot distinguish commercially between infected and vaccinated animals.
I appreciate that the Dutch, for example, have a particular problem about disposing of carcasses so vaccination is for them perhaps an option to ring-fence the disease. I am referring specifically to firebreak vaccination. With the tragedy of FMD following on from BSE and swine fever we must review in a rational way the common agricultural policy. We know that FMD has been around for 400 years so modern farm practices cannot be blamed for this virulent disease, but the mobility of animals today gives rise to greater risk and faster contamination. The general principle should be to ensure that animals are slaughtered as close as possible to the point of production.
There are huge economic implications for Ireland from this disease and while farmers are suffering badly, because of restriction of movements and slaughtering, so are other businesses and industries, particularly our tourism and transport sectors. Already we have lost IRL 200 million in tourism receipts since the outbreak of FMD in the UK some weeks ago. Our overseas markets are seriously threatened and we have only one case of it.
In conclusion, we are only spending 1% of the 1.2% of GDP currently available. There are other measures that can help compensate sectors generally in terms of our budget."@en1
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