Pressure is mounting on the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, to resolve the industrial dispute with the Civil Public Services Union which is beginning to hit farm operations.
Although the Department was able to resolve the issue of permits to allow abattoirs to slaughter animals, a welfare and animal disease problem has emerged in Co Galway, one of four counties hit by the dispute.
A claim by the union that the dispute has prevented the slaughter of a large brucellosis infected herd in Galway and that 15 other herds hit by bovine TB cannot be destroyed, was confirmed yesterday.
A spokesman for the union, Mr Eoin Ronayne, said that one farmer was running out of fodder because he had been forced to keep his brucellosis infected herd of 163 animals locked up on the land after five cattle in the herd failed the brucellosis test.
He said the union had also been made aware of the danger of spreading the disease to adjoining herds and were very sympathetic because the action had not been aimed at farmers, just the Department.
"We were approached because there is a welfare problem and the man is running out of fodder. We would like to be able to help but the Department refuses to meet us to discuss anything," he said.
Farming sources also confirmed his claim that there were 15 TB reactor herds (ie., herds where animals had failed the bovine TB test), in Co Galway and there were also at least 10 more such herds in Limerick, Mayo and Kerry where the clerical workers are picketing Department offices.
The diseased herds cannot be moved because the necessary paperwork has not been prepared for the veterinary staff to allow the animals to be legally transported to designated plants for destruction.
The president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr John Dillon, called yesterday for immediate talks to resolve the dispute and called on both sides to engage the industrial relations mechanisms available to find a resolution.
He asked the Department officials to withdraw industrial action and resume normal service so talks could begin .
Mr Billy Timmins, the Fine Gael spokesman on agriculture and food, called on the Minister, Mr Walsh to become involved in resolving the dispute.