AS the Department of Agriculture confirmed three new BSE cases yesterday, both it and its Northern Ireland counterpart denied a report that some farmers in the Republic are importing diseased, animals to obtain compensation here.
The report, in yesterday's Examiner, said a number of farmers had been investigated on suspicion of deliberately introducing' Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) into their herds to exploit the Department's generous compensation terms.
But according to the Department it investigates the source of all animals and it has no evidence that animals are being smuggled into the Republic from the North or Britain for compensation purposes.
"We are very aware of local gossip, but there is absolutely no proof that this has happened and we believe all the cases we confirmed are genuine," a spokesman said.
He praised the Garda Border operation, which was put in place in early April to prevent animals entering the Republic from the North, saying it had been very successful.
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture - said it was unaware of the Examiner report but it had no proof of the claims.
The emphatic denial by the Department of Agriculture conceals a number of concerns its staff have about levels of compensation being paid to farmers who produce diseased animals.
Unlike the UK, where only the infected animal is destroyed, in the Republic all animals in a herd where a case has been detected are destroyed. The farmer is paid the market value of all the animals in the herd.
The Department has so far spent nearly £14 million compensating herd owners for the destruction of nearly 19,000 animals from such farms, and from other farms where the animals were born or spent more than a year.
The Border operation, which is costing £70,000 a day, is part of the public relations exercise to reassure customers that BSE infected meat cannot enter the food.
The British authorities have already discovered a number of frauds involving BSE animals. A small number of farmers are prepared to accept diseased animals and present them as their own so the farm from which they came can continue to trade.
The latest three Irish cases involve 336 animals in all. The 138th case was found in a 112 strong dairy herd in Tipperary, the 139th in a herd of 12 animals in Co Wexford and the 140th in another dairy herd of 110 animals in Tipperary.
Two of the cows were eight years old, but the third was only four years, and it came from the 110 cattle on the second Tipperary farm.
Yesterday the Irish Farmers' Association said Government inaction was responsible for livestock farmers' falling incomes. In a statement, the IFA's president, Mr John Donnelly, accused the Government of failing to secure EU measures to rebuild consumer confidence in the European market.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, is meeting the EU Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, early next month to try to agree a rescue package for the European beef industry.
Meanwhile, in Northern Ireland, factory owners are refusing to operate the slaughter of animals over 30 months old because the government has cut the payment for processing from £78.50p to £47.