Livestock dealer offers apology

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN — The livestock dealer responsible for the only case of foot-and-mouth disease in Northern Ireland and for triggering a major alert south of the border has gone public to issue "1,000 apologies" for what he did.

John Walsh, originally from County Wicklow, who last month brought 271 sheep from Carlisle in England to Northern Ireland and then delivered the majority of them to the Republic, said he wished he could turn back the clock about what had been a "nightmare" and a "stupid mistake."

One of the sheep left at a farm at Meigh, Co. Armagh, developed FMD. About 250 of the sheep were brought south to a meat factory at Athleague, Co. Roscommon, and this led to a major alert.

"I’m nearly gone up the walls," he told RTE in a phone interview from Britain. "I didn’t intend to jeopardize the farming industry the way it has happened.

"If I was to turn back the clock, I wouldn’t do it again. If you were a bloody lunatic you wouldn’t do it. But it has been done, and what can you do?

"I am 1,000 percent sorry. I didn’t know, no one knew, the day those animals were bought that there was FMD in England, Scotland or Wales."

He said his conscience was "literally in bits."

Walsh said he has been interviewed in England by detectives from the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation. He said all the sheep he had brought from England had been tracked down.

Walsh said the sheep he bought in Carlisle on Feb. 15 had been in contact with FMD disease, but he had not been aware of it.

He denied he was a "traitor," as he says some have charged. Veterinary inspectors had checked the animals coming into Carlisle market and no one was aware of FMD disease at that stage.

"How could you be a traitor when you didn’t know what you were handling?" he said.

Walsh said he brought the sheep to Northern Ireland on Feb. 18. Most were brought across the border the following night to the Roscommon meat factory. They were slaughtered there on Feb. 20.

The ban on imports to the Republic was imposed on Feb. 21.

Walsh claims he confirmed to Northern Irish officials who contacted him on Feb. 25 that he had brought in the sheep from England. The following day he told the Republic’s agriculture officials that animals had been brought across the border.

He refused to answer when asked if he had made a profit of £540 on reselling the sheep.

He said plans by the government to introduce ear tagging of sheep to provide traceability would not work because tags could be interfered with. He suggested a system of micro-chip implants.

"A tag is no good . . . if unscrupulous people can get a hold of that animal in the meantime and change its identity," he said. "If that can’t be stopped, you will have a recurring nightmare like is happening in Ireland at the moment."