The Department of Agriculture is to divert resources which have been used until now on foot-and-mouth controls to a massive investigation of bogus claims for EU ewe premiums all over the State.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, announced he would be availing of all mechanisms to tackle "head on any unacceptable practices unearthed in Cooley or elsewhere".
Investigators in the Cooley peninsula found that 100 of the 275 farmers in the area could not produce all the ewes for which they were claiming EU grants. Seventeen of them were claiming for 2,000 ewes which did not exist. In all, 6,600 ewes which were not on the peninsula were being claimed for.
The State's 44,000 owners of flocks, who own eight million sheep, have not been allowed to move their stock except for slaughter since February 28th and this ban on movement presents a unique opportunity for the State to check numbers.
The farmers who submitted claims for their ewe premiums did so in early January. To collect the premium, they must keep their animals on the farm for 100 days after the claim, until April 7th.
A Department source said yesterday that for the first time, a complete paper trail existed on sheep movement since the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease and it would be possible to track all the four million ewes in the State.
The Department will check all documentation relating to premium claims and check this against slaughter data and movement permit data. Working on this information, the investigators will conduct spot checks on a risk-assessment basis.
The Minister said the new checking system had been agreed with the European Commission and payments could not be issued under the Ewe Premium Scheme in advance of the checks.
"This is essential if the interests of the vast majority of our farmers and those of Irish and European taxpayers are to be fully assured," he said.
Yesterday, the first step back to normal farming got off to a shaky start when farm-to-farm sale of cattle under permit got under way with no real market guidelines as to what prices farmers should pay as marts remain closed.
Over the past 10 weeks since the detection of foot-and-mouth disease on the island, the movement of all animals has been banned except between farm and slaughterhouse.
From yesterday, farmers were allowed to apply for a permit to sell their cattle to other farmers to start moving an estimated 600,000 animals which have been building up on the 120,000 farms in the State.
To facilitate farmers, Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, has developed a computer programme to help farmers calculate what they should pay for cattle.
Teagasc spokesman Mr Michael Miley said the situation has been further complicated because no one knew what the autumn price for beef cattle was likely to be.
Farmers, said Mr Miley, could now telephone Teagasc and advisers there could input the farmer's own information on expected weight gain, costs, premium eligibility and target profit, and compare this to a target price of between 70p to 85p per lb next autumn.