The Department of Agriculture and Food said it expected to close its files on the €165,000 Cooley peninsula ewe premium fraud uncovered during the foot-and-mouth crisis by the end of this month. By Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent.
However, no prosecutions have been taken yet against about 20 farmers who had submitted false claims for 2,000 ewes which were found to be bogus when the peninsula's flocks had to be slaughtered in late March last year.
The fraud came to light when a movement ban was imposed on the area to prevent the spread of the disease following the outbreak in Proleek on the Louth-Armagh border and all the animals on the 275 farms in the area were slaughtered.
The sheep farmers in the Cooley area had submitted claims for 37,165 ewes that year but when the slaughter took place, only 30,540 ewes could be located.
Department officials found "irregularities" on 101 of the 275 farms where they culled animals but concluded that 51 farmers were responsible for nearly 90 per cent of the false claims and were able to produce fewer than 80 per cent of the ewes they had claimed for.
They found 17 farmers who had claimed ewe premium payments for 2,000 ewes which did not exist and some of the claimants had no sheep at all.
Asked this week if all the money paid to the farmers had been recovered, a Department of Agriculture spokesperson said penalties had been imposed on a large number of the claimants.
In some cases, he said, the penalties imposed were as high as 100 per cent; in other words the total EU payment, amounting to one-third of the premium, was withheld.
The farmers involved had received only two-thirds of the EU premiums they had claimed when the irregularities came to light and the Department was able to withhold money from the remaining payments.
Asked if all the money involved had been recovered, he said that it would have to be to satisfy the EU auditors and the exercise should be completed by the end of this month.
The Department had promised to impose appropriate penalties and, in the case of possible fraud, would investigate such cases with gardaí.
The spokesman said a number of files had been prepared and sent to gardaí but as yet, these had not been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"Criminal charges are a matter for the gardaí and we have been working with them on preparing the files. We understand those files have not yet gone to the DPP," he said.
Last week it was learned that farmers across the Border in south Armagh, who were also unable to produce the ewes on which claims had been made, were not going to be prosecuted.
Since the foot-and-mouth crisis, individual sheep tagging has been put in place so each animal can be identified to ensure traceability for consumers and prevent fraud.