A South Tipperary farmer and member of the IFA sheep committee said yesterday she was not surprised that foot-and-mouth disease could have entered the State via illegally imported animals.
Ms Ann Kehoe said that in 1998 she watched 8,000 lambs being moved from the North into a processing plant in the Republic, in a clandestine operation in the small hours of a Sunday morning. On RTE Radio's News at One she said: "Two-and-a-half years later I would be positive that the Department of Agriculture never did a thing about it".
The Minister for Agriculture strongly rejected this claim, however, saying on RTE television 6.01 News: "My reaction is that I'm absolutely amazed that a person purporting to be an IFA sheep committee member would be unaware of the facts of this matter, because the story as outlined by Ms Kehoe is factually incorrect and is either deliberately or inadvertently giving a distorted account of the situation."
Mr Walsh continued: "The facts are the Department of Agriculture, following the complaint, formally raised it with the Revenue Commissioners, and the Revenue, in carrying out the request from the Department, got the matter sorted out.
"We then conveyed that to the IFA. Mr Michael Holmes was the chairman of the sheep committee at the time. The matter was also discussed at the IFA/ Department of Agriculture Sheep Forum, so I am very happy to be able to clear this matter up."
Ms Kehoe was working with the IFA sheep committee on an investigation into the illegal interstate movement of animals, which was broadcast on RTE in November 1998.
A number of people monitored traffic into processing plants over a 24-hour period, when they witnessed the large number of lambs coming in. The following Monday morning RTE contacted firms and asked if they imported lambs.
"The response from most of the factories was, yes, we do from time to time, but we did not import any lately. What I would take from that is, if everything was done above board and under the regulations of the Department of Agriculture, why would they actually deny bringing those lambs in that particular weekend?"
Despite the investigation being aired on the main television news programmes, Ms Kehoe went on, "the Department of Agriculture never so much as picked up a telephone to any of us involved in the investigation, to ask us what exactly went on. They never brought us into a meeting to say what we had uncovered". Mr Walsh also rejected this assertion. He said it was untrue that there had been no contact by phone call or letter between the sheep committee and the Department.
The Revenue Commissioners, as a result of the investigation, recovered hundreds of thousands of pounds in illegal VAT payments claimed on the imported lambs.
The Sheep Farmers Committee met all lamb-processing plants in the State during the following months in 1998, to work out a system to operate lamb imports in accordance with Department of Agriculture regulations.
Ms Kehoe said none of the Department of Agriculture officials could give her any figures on the numbers of lambs being moved into the interstate processing plants and added: "If those lambs were moving in the proper channels, there should have been statistics and figures ready to be given to us."