I want to raise with the Minister the very concerning and serious developments during the week whereby access to the Chinese market for Irish beef has been suspended temporarily. The Minister will be fully aware that this is the last thing needed at this moment by those in Irish agriculture, particularly suckler farmers, and particularly after the year just gone. We have had historically high input costs for feed, fuel and fertiliser and we have reduced margins and CAP payments. We have had the disastrous nitrates directive and awful weather, and now we have this. It is tragedy heaped on tragedy, and the blows just keep on coming.

That said, we must be grateful for small mercies in that the BSE case was isolated, nowhere near the feed or food chain, which is good. It was most likely an atypical case. Most likely, it was spontaneous in origin rather than transmitted. Most reassuring of all, it was detected by Irish authorities and communicated very transparently by them across the world. We have many generations of Irish farmers to be thankful for because the reputation of Irish beef from grassland and quality points of view has come to the rescue. I recognise that China triggers an automatic suspension once a case is detected, but I very much welcome the fact that the other 70 countries to which we export beef have not responded at all. That is a testament to the quality of Irish beef and our farmers down through the years.

There is a lot of worry in the agriculture community, even though our exports to China so far this year have been worth only €16 million. Could the Minister use his time to give us some background to the BSE case? Is there any indication as to how long it will be before the temporary suspension is lifted and access restored? Are we talking about days, weeks, months or longer? What engagement has there been between the Minister's officials and their counterparts in China or the Chinese Embassy, for instance?

The Tánaiste is in China at the moment. Could the Minister indicate whether he has spoken to his counterparts there about this issue? If not, will he consider it before returning to this country?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. On the basis of his request, I reassure everyone that our beef is absolutely safe and that there is no safety issue related to this atypical case of BSE. It is very different from classic cases of BSE, which were an issue ten or 20 years ago and were related to feed. BSE is something that happens sporadically and randomly in bovines, and it always will. One in every few million contracts it every so often. We had a similar atypical case in 2020 and another in 2017, and we will have similar ones in the future because we have 7 million or 8 million cattle in this country. It is critical that we have the best testing system anywhere in the world. That is why we capture any case that arises. I am referring not only to BSE but also to other matters of food safety. The system will remain in place. Its security is recognised by the World Organisation for Animal Health, WOAH, as is the fact that we have the best possible BSE risk rating. Our risk is negligible according to the WOAH and that is recognised by all our markets.

We exported 70 markets across the world, one of those being China. China is the only one of the 70 that has a specific clause in its importation protocol that requires exporters to voluntarily suspend exports as soon as there is an atypical case and to submit an epidemiological report to its authorities. This is a process we have gone through in the past couple of years. We secured access to the Chinese market for the first time in 2018. In 2019, we were building up this market and our companies were working hard to acquire customers. However, the atypical case in 2020 led to a suspension of the market. Over 2021 and 2022, we worked with the Chinese authorities to get the market reopened. It was reopened in January, so it is disappointing that we now have a case again. I am hopeful, given that we have gone through this process very recently with the Chinese authorities and that they have verified and signed off on the strong controls we have in place, that we will be able to gain access again more promptly. It is ultimately a matter for the Chinese authorities to decide upon.

The Tánaiste is in China this week and will be raising the matter as part of his visit. I was on a trade visit to China earlier this year. Access to markets is of considerable importance. I was in South Korea last week seeking to make progress on gaining access to its market. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Heydon, is in Malaysia and the Philippines this week seeking to build on the markets we have there. International markets are important to family farm income in this country. We must make sure that as many as possible are open. We hope to see the Chinese market reopened as soon as possible.

I thank the Minister. I echo his sentiments on the credibility and robustness of our surveillance system. That is to be applauded, and that is what we are leaning on reputationally.

I have one other concern, namely, the consequences if the meat factories seek to take full advantage of this development and lower the prices of carcases even more. Are there any safeguards to prevent this? Can the Minister assure the House it will not be allowed to happen on his watch? Is there anything we can do to ensure the factories do not take full advantage of the development by lowering the carcase prices?

The Chinese market is an important one for us to develop and build on. Our meat companies are doing really strong work in it to build up customers. China, with its 1.4 billion people and its growth in GDP and economic well-being, has a lot of potential for the future. Currently, however, the Chinese market represents a small proportion of beef exports overall. To date this year, the value of our beef exports to China is €16 million. The total value of our beef exports this year will be €2.5 billion, so the value of the beef we export to China represents just under 0.5% of what we export overall. There is very good demand for our beef in many other markets, so I do not have any worries about an impact on our current beef price. There are 69 other markets, which make up 99.5% of our total volume. That is important. The step I have taken as Minister, which is unprecedented in the State, has seen the introduction this year of a new food regulator office specifically to bring more transparency to the food supply chain. Therefore, we now have a statutory office shining a light on the relationship between the farmer, primary producer, processor and retailer to ensure fair play for farm families. We all have to work together to maximise the value of our beef and re-enter and build the Chinese market so it can deliver for family farms in the future.