Mary Harney. |
But Irish eyes are once again smiling at the prospect of the ban being lifted, thanks to talks with UAE officials during a whirlwind tour. Harney says Ireland has a high quality product and she would like to see it back in the market as soon as possible.
She said there was only one outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Ireland and BSE, also known as "mad cow disease", had been dealt with. "We have such stringent conditions and we believe we have a very high quality product, we should have it back in the market as soon as possible. We hope to have people (from the UAE) come to visit and see."
The aim of Harney's visit to the UAE is to promote trade. Last year Ireland exported $200 million worth of products to the UAE, a 53 per cent increase on 1999. Data processing machines made up the bulk of the exports, while the largest growing markets were software and telecommunications.
Harney also announced that she had met representatives from Emirates Group to discuss the possibility of a direct flight from Ireland to Dubai. Harney said a direct flight would boost tourism for both countries.
"A lot of people over here would holiday in Ireland if there was a direct service. It is a small country with a very different climate from this one." Ambassador of Ireland Connor Murphy, and senior executives from 20 companies from the Irish business community accompanied Harney on the visit, that was organised by Enterprise Ireland.
The delegation visited Dubai Internet City and Harney said she was "impressed with what has happened in such a short amount of time." Already there is one Irish company at DIC and Harney says there are about 100 more waiting to move in.
She likened Dubai's transformation to a technological hub to that of Ireland's from agriculture to IT. A visit to Dubai Media City enabled Harney to gather ideas for a similar venture planned for Ireland.
