A major fraud by sheep farmers involving payments of up to £130,000 under the EU ewe premium scheme for ewes which did not exist has been uncovered in the Cooley peninsula in Co Louth.
The fraud has been exposed as a result of the urgent cull of sheep to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth in the area last month.
The revelations have prompted the Department of Agriculture to conduct a full reevaluation of ewe premium applications around the State.
This will be the first investigation carried out with the aid of tagged sheep, as tagging became mandatory this month.
The Department has issued figures which show that farmers in the Cooley area have claimed for 6,625 ewes which could not be located when the cull was carried out.
The Department found irregularities in relation to claims on 100 of the 275 farms where they culled animals and 17 farmers in the area claimed for 2,000 ewes that did not exist.
Farmers in the area had put in claims for 37,165 ewe payments for this year at £19 a head. However, when the mandatory cull was carried out only 30,540 eligible animals could be accounted for.
The Department investigators identified 51 farmers who were responsible for nearly 90 per cent of the false claims and were able to produce less than 80 per cent of the ewes they had claimed for.
However, over the past three years when Department officials checked 106 of the 275 flocks involved, having given the requisite 48 hours' notice, they found all animals being claimed for were on the farms.
"These discrepancies showed that the number of sheep in respect of which applications were made were in excess of the number of animals actually culled.
"There were also instance where applicants were shown to have no sheep at all," said a Department statement.
It said no ewe premium payments had been made to farmers for this year and in finalising the exercise the Department would withhold payments, impose appropriate penalties and, in the case of possible fraud, would investigate in conjunction with the Garda.
It added that the introduction of individual sheep tagging would minimise the risk of such discrepancies and that in the last three years 7,065 farmers had been penalised for irregularities.
The chairman of the Irish Farmers' Association in Co Louth, Mr Raymond O'Malley, said any deliberate wrongdoing in the ewe premium scheme in north Louth was unacceptable and should be penalised.
He urged farmers to co-operate with the investigation.
He said they had nothing to fear if there was a proper explanation due to weather, natural losses or foot-and mouth.