OPERATION Matador to keep UK beef from the Republic is costing £400,000 a week, according to Assistant Garda Commissioner Tom King.
More than 800 extra gardai have been drafted into the Border area backed by the Army and Customs officials to oversee more than 200 crossings.
Since the worldwide ban on British beef in March following the BSE crisis, gardai have mounted one of the most expensive security operations ever, aimed at stopping UK beef and products going South.
Many of the Border crossings which had opened since the ceasefires now have a Garda presence. Lanes and roads are guarded 24 hours a day by gardai and fields are monitored by patrols. Cows and calves have been counted in Border fields. Every vehicle going South is checked.
Since March almost 500 cattle have been seized by gardai along the Border while there have been a further 300 cases involving beef related products.
In the Dail last Wednesday the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, said the extra Border security would add £16 million to the cost of policing the Border.
Mr King, who is responsible for the Border region, said smugglers who have been trying to bring cattle and beef products across the Border have been very inventive.
Gardai stopped an ice cream van hiding two calves the week before last along the Monaghan Border. In Co Donegal, a lorry which seemed to be stacked with hay was found to have a cage with calves hidden inside.
Mr King insists smuggling is now "unprofitable", citing the case of a smuggler being fined £19,000 after being caught with 19 animals illegally crossing the Border.
He said: "Ireland would have always been supportive of the UK. However, there is a worldwide EU ban on British beef, not on Irish beef. So the Irish Government has the obvious requirement to ensure that there is a separation between the two. And the only way you can do that is to put some physical barrier between the two. From the UK point of view, I don't think Ireland is being selfish. I think Ireland is being realistic."