THE Minister for Agriculture and Food denied yesterday that his Department had been "savaged" in the changeover of government, having lost forestry, food safety and rural development.
A special new unit is to be set up to deal with the Pounds 1.5 billion paid directly to farmers and the agriculture industry through EU Feoga grants involving over 1,400 of the Department's 4,000-strong staff.
Mr Walsh was responding to criticism from the IFA president, Mr John Donnelly, and Mr Dan McCarthy, of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, who questioned the Government's decision to transfer rural development to the Department of the Environment.
Mr Walsh said his main priority will be to give the Department of Agriculture the key responsibility in developing Government policy in the run-up to the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and the new World Trade Agreement.
It was of crucial importance that the payments, which now amount to Pounds 1.5 billion each year, be made swiftly to farmers and the industry. He wanted to bring the Department out of a "stone age" culture and streamline payments to farmers using new technologies.
At least 10 new schemes had been dumped on the Department following the 1992 reform of the CAP and these had to be dealt with, leading to criticisms of the system. That, he said, will now be rectified.
He said he will be having talks soon with Ministers in relation to the transfer of food safety to the Department of Health, Forestry and Rural Development.
He indicated he was unhappy with the transfer of rural development, but said many of the finer details of such transfers had yet to be worked out.
"That will not be the best move from the Department that I could imagine," he said, indicating he will argue for its retention in the Department.
The Department, he said, had in recent years suffered from a poor image and he was going to revamp the information and upgrade the service of the Department. The new Public Affairs division would ensure fuller and freer access of information for the public and the media and would correct the unfair image which the Department had acquired in recent years.
But Mr Walsh rejected any suggestion that the Department was being "stripped down", saying that his main focus will be to ensure that a clear and effective negotiation process for CAP reform and GATT is achieved.
Mr Walsh listed the reopening of the live cattle trade with Egypt Libya and Iran as his immediate priority and said he was available to travel immediately to any of the countries to achieve this.
He said he was also concerned about the high level of brucellosis and would be asking An Bord Bia to adopt a more "hands on" approach to marketing Irish food, helping individual companies rather than generic food promotion.