DETAILS of the new BSF Border patrols were given yesterday by the minister for Agriculture and Food, who criticised the farm organisations for saying the new system would be less effective.
Mr Yates said the primary role in Operation Matador, set up last April to prevent cattle from Northern Ireland being smuggled south, will be given to the Army.
The new system, which will be put in place next week, will involve 22 mobile Army patrols operating on a 24-hour basis and covering the 114 Border crossings.
The four-strong patrols will operate on all Border crossings and, for the purpose of the exercise the Border will be divided into sectors. "The new system will be more effective because most of the animals seized so far were captured, not at static checkpoints, but because of information received," Mr Yates said.
He said since last April, 64 consignments of animals involving 842 animals had been seized by the authorities. Some of these had been released, 376 had been destroyed and the rest were either being investigated or awaiting destruction.
Those who said there would be no gardai left on the Border were wrong. There would be 620 gardai there, backed up by the Army, said Mr Yates. He said such criticism was "unfounded or ill-informed" and came at a very sensitive time in the State's trading history.
Farm organisations and others who had made criticisms had not checked with the Department of Justice, which is in charge of the logistics of the operation.
Operation Matador, which started in April when the EU imposed a trade ban on all British beef and beef products because of the BSE problem there, and cost £1/2 million per week, had been effective, but Mr Yates said there were more cost-effective ways of controlling the Border.
There has also been pressure on the Government to withdraw the 300 gardai drafted to the Border last April and put them in urban areas to combat drug traders.
The Irish Farmers' Association criticised the changes being made in Operation Matador and said they would not help to persuade overseas buyers that no animals were coming from the North.