Several thousand head of Irish cattle manage to be both male and female at the same time, according to claims made by farmers to the Department of Agriculture.
The hermaphrodite cattle were the subjects of claims made to the Department of Agriculture under two EU subsidy schemes, one beef subsidy for male cattle and the other for suckler cows. In 1996, £167.1 million was paid out under the beef scheme, and £157.7 million under the cow scheme.
An analysis by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of the computer records of payments issued under the two schemes discovered that animals with the same ear tags had been claimed for under both schemes.
The same identifying system for cattle - ear tags, accompanied by cattle identity cards - is used for disease control measures. Staff of the CAG's office also crosschecked disease control records with records of payments of subsidies, and discovered that a number of cattle recorded as female in the disease control reports had claims for beef subsidies made later on their behalf.
"There is no systematic programme of computerised or manual cross-checking between premia applications and disease control records and any co-ordination of data between the various databases and files tends to be carried out on an exceptional basis.
While much of the information necessary for effective control was already available to the Department, it was not co-ordinated or integrated to allow effective crosschecking, the report states.