THE prospect of the two-year-old European Union export ban on Scottish beef being lifted within months rose yesterday after similar restrictions were ended on exports from Northern Ireland.

The European Commission decided to give the green light to the resumption of Northern Irish exports from Monday after it was convinced that the necessary precautions had been put in place to ensure that all the beef sold abroad would be BSE-free.

The decision is the first breach in the export ban, which has badly hit the British beef industry, and was immediately welcomed by Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham.

''This is excellent news and an important day for the United Kingdom's beef industry. It is what we have worked for and we are making sustained efforts to win a wider lifting of the ban to benefit exports throughout the United Kingdom,'' he said.

The commission has already begun preparations for a further lifting of the ban which was imposed by Britain's 14 EU partners in March 1996 after the Government announced a possible link between BSE and a new variant of the human Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.

Under the scheme being examined by the commission, the export ban would be lifted on all animals born in Scotland and the rest of the country after August 1, 1996 - the date from which the Government managed to convince its partners that meat and bone-meal was no longer fed to cattle throughout the whole of the UK.

However, before exports can be resumed, the scheme must be formally approved by the commission and endorsed either by senior national vets or, more probably, by EU agriculture ministers.

''Under the most optimistic scenario, this could theoretically be done well before the summer break. The commission could formally adopt the proposal in mid-June and it could then be approved by farm ministers the following week,'' explained one senior EU official.

But even he acknowledged that it was unlikely exports would resume so quickly. One of the main obstacles the Government will have to overcome before the beef industry can start regaining the export markets it has lost over the past two years will be Germany.

It has been strong pressure from German consumers which has prevented any relaxation of the ban since it was imposed. And with the country facing a general election in September, the German government is reluctant to agree anything which could lead to a public backlash.

Northern Ireland has stolen a march on the rest of the UK since it is the only part of the country which has an official computerised system which contains the records and can trace the movements of every animal throughout its life.

From Monday, the beef industry will be able to export meat from cattle over six months and under 30 months in age which comes from herds where there has been no single case of BSE for the past eight years.