British Agriculture Minister Mr Nick Brown said he is absolutely certain the foot-and-mouth crisis is under control, despite a record 25 cases being confirmed today bringing the number of UK outbreaks to 164.
Mr Brown said all cases can be traced back to the original outbreak, although he still could not say how many more would emerge.
However Conservative Agriculture Spokesman Mr Tim Yeo said the situation is approaching a national emergency, and the army should be called in to help with incinerating animal carcasses left lying in fields.
However Mr Hugh Byrne, Minister of State at the Department of Marine & Natural Resources was critical the British approach. "I think it's nothing short of a scandal. I believe myself that Britain have totally mishandled this."
He told the BBC: "They seem to have been of the opinion that this disease was just going to go away - they seem to me and to many people in Ireland to have cared very little about the farmers in Britain and very little about their neighbours like ourselves."
Mr Brown defended his handling of the crisis, saying: "It's under control. What we don't know is how much is incubating, which spread before the movement restrictions were put in place.
"I know it's hard, I know it's disruptive, but this is the right thing to do. All the outbreaks trace back to the original source of infectivity - of course there are more than we would have hoped for, but it doesn't undermine the overall strategy."
He says the movement of thousands of carcasses to a rendering plant in Cheshire will help to clear the backlog.
The county has had no confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth, and some farmers fear the process could add to the spread of the disease. But the minister says more than 30 lorries being used have been thoroughly sealed and tested and will be taken to the plant under escort.
PA