Fraudsters have been warned by the Department of Agriculture and Food that it will frustrate any efforts they make to collect money under a scheme designed to remove ewes from mountains and commonages.
The £6 million Ewe Depopulation Scheme, which will be financed by the taxpayer and not from EU funds, aims to remove about 200,000 ewes from mountains and commonages.
When details of the scheme became known earlier this year, the price of mountain ewes plummeted as thousands of farmers attempted to offload them.
As a result, farmers were unable to sell old ewes, and it was suggested that the 15,000 hill farmers directly involved would receive little or no compensation.
But last week, when it became clear that a compensation payment of £30 per head was likely, the price of ewes climbed dramatically at marts and fairs.
The Department of Agriculture and Food yesterday said it was aware that people who should not be entitled to the depopulation payments were buying up ewes. "We want to say now that the controls on this scheme will be very, very tight, and only those who are entitled to the payments will get them," a spokesman said.
He said that it had been necessary to introduce the scheme to satisfy EU directives on habitat and to combat overgrazing by sheep on mountains and commonages along the west coast.
"Basically we are talking about a specific group of farmers who have already been identified and they will receive payments of £30 per ewe for depopulating their lands and commonages," he said.
"Anyone else who tries to muscle in on this scheme will find it very difficult." According to the spokesman, the Department yesterday met representatives of the rendering industry, which will have the task of removing specified risk material - organs which could be subject to BSE - on all animals over one year old.
It is not yet known if the payments will be made by the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, which will introduce the scheme.
It will be based on the emergency Fodder Payments scheme, which has been designed to help farmers who find themselves short of fodder for their animals this winter because of bad weather.