THE operation to seal the Border to prevent Northern Ireland cattle being smuggled into the Republic is costing the State £500,000 a week in overtime payments.

The Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs was given the cost of preventing BSE infected cattle coming south yesterday by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates.

He said the cost of the operation, involving the Garda, Customs and Department of Agriculture officials was unlikely to be recovered by the State from either Britain or the EU.

The Minister, who had been invited to make a presentation on BSE and on the recent EU beef fines, said a video of the operation was being made and distributed across the world.

During the discussion Mr Noel Davern TD (FF) said an immediate crackdown on the abuse of so called angel dust was needed. "Anyone caught using it should be banned from having a herd number for the rest of his life," he said.

Mr Yates said that those convicted under the terms of the new Act, currently under challenge in the Supreme Court, would automatically lose their premium payments for five years.

Other controls were being tightened, for example, on names used by herd owners for stock presented at factories. This was to prevent names like "Elvis Presley and Paddy Murphy" being used. "We believe we have got its abuse down to a small residual, hardcore criminal ring," he said.

Outlining what he had already done on BSE, Mr Yates said no ease of the new form of CJD in humans had been found in Ireland, which has the most stringent controls in the world.

But, he said, the problem of restoring consumer confidence would take a long time. It could not be resolved until the British resolved their own problems because the consumer had now absolute sovereignty.

He also said it was time farmers began to help themselves and set up producer groups so every piece of beef could be traced back to the farmer who produced it. He wanted a national quality assurance scheme.

Later, when dealing with the EU beef fines, the Minister was asked who had gained from the irregularities uncovered by the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Industry. He said the Irish taxpayer was totally innocent in what had happened.

The producers had gained because, had there been no EU intervention, there would have been no market at the time for their beef. He said there was a clear gain to the factories in areas where they had illegally failed to hand over prime cuts of beef to which they were not entitled.

The tribunal transcripts and other evidence were being examined to see if prosecutions could be brought, he said. Although all the bills for the tribunal had not been presented, it was likely to cost the Irish taxpayer between £30 and £35 million.

"The taxpayer will be caught for the full hit," he said, describing the whole issue as "a very sorry episode" which must never happen again.