FARM organisations claimed last night that they are being hit harder than any other sector bye the work to rule imposed by the Civil and Public Service Union.
Last Friday the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, said the CPSU dispute had been causing very serious problems for Departmental work. He said a number of schemes - the land parcel identification package, the new bovine TB scheme and the new tagging arrangements - had been severely disrupted by the union's action over the public service recruitment embargo.
He also said that cattle which had failed the bovine TB test could not be slaughtered because union members were refusing to issue permits to move the infected animals from farms.
Last week the Department said the country's 160,000 farmers did not have to meet the end of the month deadline to provide farm maps for various EU schemes, but should submit the necessary forms by May 1st. On Thursday last the Department gave farmers a two week extension for the return of the forms.
The Irish Farmers' Association yesterday estimated that 50,000 farmers were now being affected by the dispute.
An IFA statement said: "In the midst of the biggest farming crisis this State has seen in 50 years, the tactics of the union are irresponsible. The dispute is causing widespread hardship to vulnerable livestock farmers by jeopardising the orderly marketing of cattle and interfering with the implementation of the TB and brucellosis eradication schemes."
The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, which met union leaders last night, said the dispute was "crippling the agriculture industry".
The CPSU general secretary, Mr John O'Dowd, said last night that for years the farming organisations had been attacking the civil and public service over pay and staffing levels. "At the same time they have been seeking more and more public funds for themselves," he said.