The Department of Agriculture has promised a full farm-by-farm reconciliation check between the number of ewe premiums claimed on the Cooley peninsula and the number of ewes slaughtered during the foot-and-mouth outbreak there.
Yesterday, as reports persisted of abuse of the ewe premium scheme, it said that the 300 farmers in the area had submitted claims for 38,900 subsidies on ewes.
In all, 49,100 sheep had been slaughtered by its officials but the number of ewes slaughtered has not been made available.
Assuming that 38,900 ewes were slaughtered in the cull, this should mean there were only 10,200 hoggets, lambs, wethers and rams on the peninsula when the mandatory cull was put into effect during the lambing season.
The Department spokesman said he could not say "one way or the other" if there had been abuses of the system in the area. That could only be ascertained with a farm-by-farm check against cull records.
"That has to be done manually and staff are working on this as we speak. We would hope to have this done in a few days. All this work takes time and resources and has to be done manually," he said.
The Department also announced it was extending its search for the foot-and-mouth virus in sheep over the next three months and would take blood samples from 200,000 animals in 3,000 flocks all over the State. The spokesman said this had not been prompted by any specific thing but was being undertaken as a precautionary move to ensure the health of the national flock.
He said 14,000 blood samples had been taken from animals in the Cooley area and 6,400 more from 157 farms outside the Louth area. These samples from 17 counties had all been negative.
Later today the Irish Farmers Association president, Mr Tom Parlon, will meet the Government's expert group advising on foot-and-mouth controls, to insist that farm-to-farm movement be allowed to resume.
He will be presenting detailed plans for the relaxation of restrictions on animal movements, which have been banned except under permit to factories for slaughter since the outbreak of the disease in Proleek.
In a statement yesterday, Mr Parlon said there was an urgent need to scale down the tight internal restrictions on animal movements and concentrate on the perimeter defences at the Border, ports and airports.
He said that as a matter of urgency the organisation wanted farmers to be allowed to move pedigree bulls and breeding stock and to be allowed to move animals within farms without permits. The IFA was insisting a minimal-risk system of farm-to-farm movement must be introduced within days, involving livestock marts and permit controls.
"The pressure building on farms from the FMD restrictions over the last nine weeks has now reached crisis point on many farms with fodder used up. Severe husbandry, feed and animal welfare problems are now a reality on many farms," he said.
He said time was rapidly running out on the need to ease restrictions and allow controlled movement. The EU had last week reinstated Ireland's foot-and-mouth free status, opening the way for normalisation.
He called on the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, to make an immediate announcement clearing the way for the recommencement of TB and Brucellosis testing, which would be necessary before movement.