Analysis: One year ago tomorrow a lorryload of sheep arrived in Belfast, bringing foot-and-mouth disease to Ireland. Sean MacConnell looks at the report into the consequences of that day
Exactly one year ago tomorrow the "Nightrider" ferry service arrived in the port of Belfast at 2.10 a.m. On board was a lorry carrying a load of sheep from Longtown mart. The sheep had been in contact with foot-and-mouth-infected animals.
The driver was carrying a certificate that the sheep were being imported "direct for slaughter" in the North.
Because of staffing arrangements, there was no Department of Agriculture inspector on duty. The sheep did not go for slaughter but were illegally diverted to a farm in Killeen, south Armagh, where 71 were unloaded.
These were taken by a different vehicle to a farm in the Republic but eight were subsequently returned to Killeen.
The rest of the imported consignment were taken to Meigh, Co Armagh, and held for approximately 20 hours. Then 248 sheep were taken in two vehicles for slaughter to the Kepak factory in Athleague, Co Roscommon.
The others were removed during the following week to various premises in the Republic. The sheep were traced to four premises in counties Meath, Laois and Louth. The animals at Meigh were the source of the first case of foot-and-mouth disease in over 60 years on this island and cost the dual economies millions of euro in lost tourism, farming and other revenues.
The importation of the sheep and its consequences have been examined in detail in a report published last night by the Centre for Cross Border Studies in Armagh.
The first case of the disease was confirmed in Meigh on March 1st and despite the best efforts of the authorities on both sides of the Border, the second took place in the Republic, at Proleek, on March 22nd.
There were three other confirmed outbreaks in the North, at Ardboe, Co Tyrone, where there were two cases and on a farm at Cushendall, Co Antrim.
Although the report identified the lax controls at Belfast and Larne ports as being the weakest link in a chain which might have prevented the arrival of the disease here, it concluded that the overall co-operation between the Departments of Agriculture, North and South, had been very effective.
It instanced the fact that the Northern authorities had helped trace the movements of "missing " sheep to destinations in the Republic and that a joint team of officials had travelled to Britain to interview the livestock importer.
It also dealt with smuggling in the Border area which it said was seen by many as stealing from the rich to feed the poor and was only human nature in that farmers would work the system for their financial gain, particularly as farm incomes had dropped by nearly 90 per cent in the North in the previous five years.
The report also estimated that enforcing the ban on animal movements on the Border had cost the Republic's taxpayers £40 million (€50.79 million), and the Northern authorities had spent Stg £56 million.
The main recommendations of the report are that there should be even closer co-operation between the authorities North and South and that an all-Ireland animal health system be established.
It concluded there was a dangerous link between fraud and animal health but that illegal practices, such as claiming for sheep which did not exist, uncovered when sheep had to be slaughtered, appear to be committed by a small number of individuals.
"It is felt by many in the farming community, North and South, that the Departments should not have published raw subsidy fraud figures before investigations had been undertaken and people were given the right to justify themselves," it said.