A total of 442 people have applied for either unemployment benefit or assistance as a direct result of the foot-and-mouth crisis. However, the president of SIPTU, Mr Des Geraghty, said many of those affected - and who were not showing up in the figures - were employees on short-time working, or seasonal workers in sectors such as tourism who had not yet resumed work after the winter break. He expected the numbers signing on to rise if the crisis continued.
"While serious concern must be shown by the Government for the impact of this crisis on farmers, even greater concern must be shown for the greater numbers of workers now threatened," he said yesterday. "The full weight of the law must also be directed at those greedy operators responsible for unleashing this devastating blow to the Irish economy."
Figures supplied to the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs by local offices show the largest number of people signing on - 66 - are from Tipperary, followed by Limerick at 40, Cork at 36 and Dublin at 30. In Co Louth only two people have signed on so far, and the figure for Monaghan is four.
The task force set up by the Minister, Mr Ahern, met in Dundalk yesterday to begin its efforts "to short-circuit bureaucracy and fast-track support" to those most affected.
Mr Geraghty said: "We note with alarm that Garda sources last week were pointing to a growing number of violations by farmers of the ban on movements of stock. The priority now is to contain this outbreak in Louth so that disease-free status can be restored in 30 days. And there should be no hesitation in jailing anybody responsible for stock movements which place in jeopardy such containment."
Bord Bia, the Irish food board, has pulled out of the International Food Exhibition in London because of the crisis. However exhibitors said there were no negative feelings about the board's decision and that buyers in the British food industry had nothing but admiration for the measures the Irish Government had put in place to contain the disease.
Russia, Ireland's largest non-EU market for meat, has banned all imports of animal products from the EU, including Ireland, from last Friday. The ban excludes product already in transit to Russia, if it was shipped before the outbreak of foot-and-mouth-disease was confirmed. The Russian market in the first quarter of this year was worth £7 million. Last Friday, Japan, which takes £40 million worth of Irish pigmeat annually, announced a ban on EU meat.