The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Mr Walsh, has been asked by the Government to report within two months on the restructuring of his Department into three areas of responsibility. Decisions favouring the creation of a separate entity to deal with EU intervention and grant schemes by the last two governments, arising from the Beef Tribunal report, have not been implemented because of reported resistance within the Department.
There has been disagreement between Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats in Cabinet over the degree of separation to take place, with the Progressive Democrats demanding a standalone FEOGA operation.
A report from a high-level steering group, established by the Government to investigate the Department of Agriculture, was considered by the Cabinet yesterday. Mr Walsh was requested to bring forward specific plans to deal with its 48 proposals.
Chief among them was a recommendation that management should pursue the proposed restructuring of the Department into three pillars - FEOGA payments; food safety and production; and policy developments.
It advised that unannounced audit inspections should be carried out at meat plants and that priority should be given to the full recovery of the cost of such inspection. In addition, it was suggested the Department consider registering itself as a tax entity for VAT in respect of its intervention activities.