The Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has been criticised for the lack of controls at Northern Ireland ports which contributed to bringing foot-and-mouth disease on to the island of Ireland last year.
The criticism is contained in the first independent report on the 2001 crisis compiled by Dr Patricia Clarke for the Centre for Cross-Border Studies.
In her report, which was released last night almost a year after the first outbreak of the disease in Britain, Dr Clarke reported on all the circumstances surrounding the illegal importation of infected sheep from Britain on February 19th, 2001, which caused the outbreak.
"The ease of obtaining a 'direct for slaughter' certificate, together with the lax controls at the ports and the lack of an audit trail, made such importation like taking candy from a baby, in the words of one Northern farmer," she reported.
In its defence, the Department in Belfast said its position was very clear that illegal activities were the sole cause of the outbreak and were not excusable.
"While the Department does what it can to guard against such activities, it does not have infinite resources and has to decide on its priorities," it said. "There is no EU requirement to check any consignment of sheep coming from GB to Northern Ireland, being within a single member-state and neither was there any national legal requirement that we do so."
The report, however, highlighted the importance of the decision by the Northern Ireland Executive to ban imports of animals and animal products from Britain two days after the first foot-and-mouth outbreak there.
"This decision, which would have been almost inconceivable under direct rule, allowed the island's agricultural authorities to take control of tackling the crisis and was the first high-profile example of Northern Ireland's new ability to make its own decisions," said the report.
Its main recommendation was that an all-Ireland expert advisory group, modelled on the export group which successfully advised the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, last year, should become active in the event of a future animal health emergency affecting the island as a whole.
It pointed out that in the past 10 years there had been outbreaks of Aujesky's disease and blue ear disease in pigs, BSE in cattle, FMD in sheep and cattle and salmonella in poultry.
It concluded that "the most successful way to avoid future emergencies is to utilise the natural water barrier around the island by moving towards and all Ireland animal health system".
The other main recommendations in the report included the setting up of an all-island multi-sectoral group made up of farm organisations, North and South, and other agricultural interests, to work with officials of the North-South Ministerial Council on a future all-Ireland animal health strategy.
It also called for a harmonisation of the animal identification systems on a North-South basis and for a method for promoting mutual access to records be developed.