There were further fears for beef industry jobs yesterday as four more factories began killing animals for the EU Slaughter for Destruction Scheme.
Mr John Kane, the SIPTU national industrial secretary, estimated that 250 jobs had been lost or were under threat from the cull scheme, which does not require the animals to be boned out or processed. "We are attempting to assess what looks like a job cull by calling together the shop stewards from meat plants around the country next Wednesday," he said.
The SIPTU vice-president, Mr Jack O'Connor, had written to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, seeking an immediate meeting to discuss compensation for the 4,000 workers likely to be affected.
An estimated 1,500 animals were slaughtered in the five plants yesterday, but the Department of Agriculture and the Irish Meat Association, representing the beef-processing plants, said there had also been slaughtering for beef consumption.
A Department spokesman said that since January 2nd 12,000 animals over 30 months had been slaughtered and tested for BSE, and all the tests had been negative.
The BSE crisis took yet another political scalp yesterday, this time in Spain, with the sacking of the Galician Minister for Agriculture, Mr Castor Gago.
He had earlier admitted ordering that 282 cattle be illegally buried in a local disused mine without health checks, together with 53 tonnes of animal-based feed.
Meanwhile, figures issued by An Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, show the drop in beef consumption in the EU because of the BSE scare was in the region of 10 per cent if calculated over the last two months of 2000, and a 5 per cent overall drop if taken over the year.