The Department of Agriculture must show "a greater degree of openness and accountability" in the foot-and-mouth crisis, the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said last night.
His criticism followed confusing statements by the Northern Ireland Minister of Agriculture, Mrs Brid Rodgers, and Department officials about sheep linked to the first outbreak of the disease in Meigh, Co Armagh.
In the Northern Ireland Assembly on March 5th, Mrs Rodgers said sheep linked to the Meigh consignment, other than those sent for slaughter to Athleague, Co Roscommon, had entered the Republic. Yesterday she told the Assembly: "The Department of Agriculture in Dublin has now advised us that they have located a number of sheep that, in their view, are the missing animals."
In Dublin, however, the Department disputed this. It said that it had received information last Friday that sheep which "could have had" links to Meigh had been traced. Vets quickly sealed off four farms in Carlow, Laois, Meath and Wexford, and slaughtered 1,200 animals.
"We don't know if these include any of the animals that she was talking about," said a Department of Agriculture official.
Last night the Labour leader said the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, had been unable to say last week whether sheep linked to Meigh had come into the Republic before cross-Border movements were stopped on February 21st.
"At no stage, to my knowledge, has the Department of Agriculture publicly accepted that sheep from Meigh, other than those in Athleague, were in this country . . . We are now being informed, once again, by the Northern authorities that those sheep, which we know to have been in contact with foot-and-mouth disease, have now been traced in the Republic.
"My view is that a greater degree of openness and accountability from our own authorities is warranted."
He posed several questions for Mr Walsh:
"Have sheep which were part of the Meigh consignment been located in the Irish Republic? If so how many? Have they all been slaughtered and tested? Are they all accounted for at this stage?"
