Agriculture was the only sector of Irish society which actually gained from the foot-and-mouth crisis, according to an economic evaluation of the impact of the disease on the economy published yesterday on the first anniversary of the outbreak here.
The report undertaken by INDECON, an international consultancy firm, found that while agriculture had gained €107 million over the crisis, tourism and other sectors had lost €210 million.
In addition, it estimated the Exchequer costs at €107 million and the total cost of the outbreak at €210 million or about 0.2 per cent of GDP.
However, the report, which was commissioned by the Departments of Agriculture and Tourism, Sport and Recreation, found that had there been multiple outbreaks of the disease, the cost to the State could have been between €1 billion and €5.6 billion and thousands of jobs could have been lost.
The study found that any potential losses to the agriculture sector were offset by firmer meat prices and increased exports to Britain and the EU.
Overall, the impact of FMD was believed to have increased the value of agri-food exports by €63 million.
The report found that precautionary measures taken to keep FMD out of Ireland had an impact on Irish tourism.
Both the number of visitors to Ireland and their length of stay fell in the first half of 2001. Nevertheless, total revenue from tourism was up on the first six months of 2000. However, in the absence of FMD, the likelihood was that revenue would have been substantially higher.
The consultants estimated the loss of the potential increase to be €210m. Much of this loss would have occurred in rural areas.