A spokesman for the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, rejected a call from the president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association for a radical overhaul of the Department, writes Seán MacConnell.
The ICMSA's Mr Pat O'Rourke said since the new CAP reform the situation could not continue where, for every 25 farmers, there was one department official watching, auditing and monitoring them.
"This is excessive and a waste of departmental resources," he said. "The Minister should radically overhaul and revitalise the Department of Agriculture in order to reduce the huge cost burden in agriculture."
Mr O'Rourke said the department should focus on providing an efficient service for a modern, profitable farming sector.
He said that now with the onslaught of decoupling, many of the civil servants would no longer be needed and the last thing that should be done was the deployment of a huge army of inspectors to restrict rather than develop farming.
But a spokesman for the Minister at the National Ploughing Championships here in Ballinabrackey rejected Mr O'Rourke's allegation that the department was overstaffed and radical reform was needed.
He said that 50 per cent of the department's 4,000 employees were directly involved in food safety work to protect consumers and ensure the safety of food. These civil servants were employed in meat inspection and monitoring at meat and poultry plants, doing work which was ultimately for the benefit of farmers.
He said the remaining staff were involved in inspection work on farms and administrative duties which were vitally important and Mr O'Rourke's assertions had to be rejected.
The spokesman said the ICMSA had not even responded to the request for a submission when the Statement of Strategy 2003-2005 was being prepared.
Meanwhile, the fall-out from the Irish Farmers Association's DNA sampling survey which alleged some Irish hotels, butchers and wholesalers were selling Brazilian beef as Irish, continued here. The IFA president, Mr John Dillon, said it unequivocally stood over the procedures, scientific analysis and results of its beef origin and labelling survey.
Mr Dillon said he was disappointed with the response from the Irish Hotels Federation, which amounted to "denial and bluster" rather than a considered response to the IFA findings.
"IFA approached this survey from a strictly consumer viewpoint, purchasing beef from outlets and suppliers dealing directly with the public," he said.
"There was nothing clandestine about the IFA survey which has highlighted widespread consumer deception in beef labelling. It amounted to false and misleading product description," he said. He said he would be meeting Bord Bia, the Irish food board as soon as possible for their response.