The farmer who imported a consignment of sheep last month which was linked to foot-and-mouth has said he wants to be shown "humanity" from the Irish and British governments. Mr John Walsh asked if the Minister for Agriculture and the North's Minister of Agriculture, Mrs Brid Rodgers, "have to hang people to the cross to prove that they are good detectives or good people or what."
Mr Walsh (47), originally from Wicklow but recently living in the midlands, was speaking yesterday on RTE's Liveline. Joe Duffy said Mr John Walsh rang him on Saturday, asking him to contact directly the Minister for Agriculture. Yesterday, Mr Walsh said he would satisfy the Minister "with 100 per cent trace on the sheep".
Mr Duffy said the Minister "has ruled out any possibility of an amnesty for traders, dealers or farmers who may have brought sheep or cattle illegally into the Republic in recent months.
On Liveline, Mr John Walsh said: "If they [the governments] are so concerned, why are they appealing for help when the help was offered to them last Saturday?"
Mr Duffy asked him: "What do you need from Mrs Brid Rodgers or Mr Joe Walsh, or the two governments, to give them the 100 per cent trace?"
Mr Walsh replied: "The same amount of humanity that they are expecting of the likes of me . . . the ball is in his [the Minister's] court now."