Foot-and-mouth curbs may be eased in the North

An easing of foot-and-mouth restrictions in Northern Ireland could come as early as this week, the province’s Enterprise minister said today after a meeting with the tourism industry.

Tourism has been hit hard by the outbreak and Sir Reg Empey said there were ‘‘huge revenue drops’’ being suffered by the sector.

The minister held a brain-storming session in Belfast with tourism chiefs, hoteliers, local councils and representatives of major tourism attractions to discuss the crisis.

He revealed afterwards that the Northern Ireland Tourist Board was preparing a major marketing drive to try and re-coup business once the crisis was over.

Northern Ireland has had only one confirmed case of foot-and-mouth - in South Armagh at the end of last month - but tough restrictions were introduced to prevent further cases.

Ministers in the Stormont Executive urged all non- essential visitors from mainland Britain to stay away, but that could be eased when the Executive meets on Thursday.

But Sir Reg said any relaxation would only be made on advice from veterinary experts.

He said people had been focusing on the agriculture industry during the crisis and tourism had ‘‘almost been the forgotten victim’’.

But he said a string of events and conferences had been cancelled, hotels were operating at between 30-50% of the norm and had suffered a ‘‘very substantial drop in bookings’’, and while airlines reported current business holding up there was a worrying drop in advance bookings.

Many guesthouses were essentially 100% shut down and people talking of signing on the dole.

Hoteliers were warning that jobs would go if the crisis continued for long.

Tourism in the province has been building in the more peaceful climate - up 11% last year - and Sir Reg said: ‘‘This represents a huge setback no matter how you look at it.’’

The priority had been and would remain preventing and containing the disease.

‘‘For that to succeed will be painful in the short term but it may pay dividends in the long term,’’ he said.

Sir Reg added: ‘‘If things go as planned this week we would be in a position to look at ways we can relax things, but that has to be guided by veterinary advice.’’

The minister said the executive did not want to have unnecessary restrictions - while Britain and the Irish Republic were moving towards easing restrictions - but at the same time: ‘‘We don’t want to end up like Cumbria and Devon with funeral pyres burning for weeks and huge culls of animals.

‘‘It is a balancing act but I hope that if things remain clear during the week we may be in a position to review guidance as the week progresses.’’

The meeting between the minister and the tourism industry went ahead against a backdrop of a fresh call from Northern Ireland’s chief vet for farmers to maintain their ‘‘fortress farm’’ policy.

‘‘It is essential farmers maintain the discipline of ‘‘nothing in, nothing out’’ if we are to defeat this disease,’’ said Bob McCracken.

He said he was more hopeful, if not actually confident, that the infection was no longer on farms in the province.

But he said: ‘‘We have a major situation across water and there are two ways in which we can still get infection, from the wind and through the ports.’’

While there was little which could be done about the wind, ports represented the most dangerous spot for foot-and-mouth disease and ‘‘no self-respecting farmer should be anywhere near them’’.