Walsh plans tagging of sheep, pigs despite IFA opposition

The Minister for Agriculture has stressed his commitment to introducing tagging for sheep and pigs despite opposition from the Irish Farmers' Association.

Speaking yesterday on RTE's This Week programme Mr Walsh said the foot-and-mouth crisis had thrown up a number of weaknesses in the system, one of them being the absence of tagging for livestock other than cattle.

He said he had put a plan in place last autumn on the issue and "we tried to bring the social partners along with us" without success. However, he had had a meeting with farming leaders on Saturday, "and I insisted on this measure going ahead, and it will go ahead".

Asked why he had not insisted on the move last year when the IFA opposed his plan, he replied: "We have a system of social partnership in the country for the past decade and we consult with and negotiate with and introduce measures by agreement in this country, and sheep-tagging is one of those measures."

Cattle already carry identifying "passports" in line with safety measures to combat BSE.

Responding to claims that rogue members of the farming community were responsible for the current crisis, Mr Walsh said that in any situation there were some lapses. But "we should remember that we haven't had foot-and-mouth since 1941. That's six decades. We haven't had the threat of foot-and-mouth in four decades and, in fairness to everybody, we haven't had exotic diseases such as classic swine fever etc in Ireland for that length of time.

"But we do have to be vigilant, and I believe that the European Union and their veterinary control system will have to be, in the future, a bit more vigilant because this foot-and-mouth virus came into Britain from outside of the EU, and we are now under threat from it."

As for the controls which have been introduced in the Republic to combat the foot-and-mouth threat, he said they were far more comprehensive than those in the UK and other EU countries. He noted that "unscrupulous people, of course, will flout the law and there has been some evidence in the past of smuggling".

However, there were very strict penalties for breaches of the law. A summary conviction carried a maximum penalty of a £1,500 and/or a year in jail and an indictable offence a £100,000 fine and/or five years in jail. "We will insist on the full rigours of the law applying to anybody and any company who flouts the law.

"We cannot be complacent," he added. "This is an extremely contagious disease." As a result, the general public and relevant agencies were being asked to be vigilant and remain on full alert.