As the EU declared the State free of foot-and-mouth from midnight last night, the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, said the extent of livestock smuggling was worse than had been thought.
He was one of three Government Ministers who visited the Ballymascanlon control centre in Dundalk yesterday for what should have been a full-scale celebration to mark 30 days' clearance since the first and only case of the disease in the Republic.
However, Mr Smith and his colleagues, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, and the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr Dermot Ahern, warned that controls against the disease would have to be intensified because of the two new cases in the North.
The emphasis yesterday was on defence against the disease and the search for vital information on the illegal movement of animals from the North, which could yet cause an outbreak in the Republic. Mr Walsh appealed again to the public to use his Department's special "confidential FMD telephone line" to give them any information they could on illegal movements of animals.
"The time is over for misplaced loyalties of any kind. Such information is vital to protect the national herd from this horrible disease," Mr Walsh said as he began a tour of the Border region.
"We should have been here to celebrate the end of foot-and-mouth on this island today but instead, we are here to intensify the checks along the Border," Mr Smith said. On smuggling, Mr Smith said despite the terrible television pictures of animals being slaughtered and burned and the knowledge that the disease could inflict major damage on the economy, some people were still prepared to be involved in illegality.
"It is one thing to do something illegal before you knew the facts. To continue to do it afterwards is treasonable. It is foreign to the vast majority of the people in the country," he said.
Mr Smith said there were individuals prepared to break the laws but this threat was bigger than any individual and he was appealing for information to break the cycle.
The Co Louth IFA chairman, Mr Raymond O'Malley, said he feared the new legislation to control illegal trading brought in this month would not work unless backed by special squads.
Mr O'Malley said despite many controls over the last decades the twin problems of bovine TB and brucellosis were persisting because of the activities of a few individuals who would laugh at the State.
"There is no room left in farming for criminals or rogues. They are destroying the industry, the quality assurance schemes and traceability and making a mockery of our marketing efforts on behalf of the majority of our people," he said.
"Why should we allow the rights of a few criminals to destroy the well-being of the nation as a whole. There is now the political and the cultural will to get rid of this criminality for once and for all but we need special investigation units." One such team made up of gardai and Department of Agriculture officials was needed for Louth and Monaghan to stop roguery along the Border, Mr O'Malley added.
In two other developments yesterday, the Irish Country Meats plant in Camolin, Co Wexford, was declared free of foot-and-mouth when blood samples taken from sheep there were found to be disease-free in Abbotstown. It will reopen today.
And following a meeting of the expert committee advising on disease controls, the Minister said the St Patrick's Day May Festival could take place. However, the largest livestock show, the Tullamore Show, has been cancelled.