Ireland is beginning to seriously deviate from the legal procedures available in Britain.

If the foot and mouth outbreak arose from the Pirbright laboratory site there will be litigation. That litigation will, according to all accounts, be a “class action�.

In the UK, the procedure to bring that about is a Group Litigation Order. The procedure is detailed at paragraph 19.11 of Section A of the UK Civil Procedure Rules.

The Irish legal system lacks this procedure. It is a procedure economical in time and money and it is difficult to know why it has not been adopted here.