The Government last night rejected a Labour Party motion calling for a ban on bonemeal feed for animals.
The vote, by 69 to 61, came after EU Commissioner David Byrne announced a package of proposals, including a temporary ban on feeding of meat-and-bone meal to all farm animals.
Dr Mary Upton, Labour's consumer affairs spokeswoman, said the State had to learn from British mistakes. BSE cases were dropping in the UK but continuing to rise in Ireland, despite bonemeal controls introduced in 1990 and re-enforced in 1996, because they were ineffective.
The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, asked how the Government could reject the motion when it would be urging the EU Council of Ministers next week to do just what was being proposed.
No EU member-state was more dependent on the beef industry than Ireland, he said.
Mr Ned O'Keeffe, Minister of State for Agriculture, said the Department of Agriculture had been dealing with BSE "in a completely open and transparent manner".
