Dioxin episode - lessons learned or inconvenient realities ignored?
20 March 2010
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister
“The fall out from the dioxin contamination, inflicted from the Republic, continues for many farmers, particularly some dairy farmers which went without compensation for milk which they had to dump. The recent Assembly Report on the crisis is an opportune occasion to again draw attention to that reality.
“But, two dominant conclusions are inescapable: the so called ‘Fortress Ireland’ policy on animal health, so lauded by the DARD Minister, is a malfunctioning farce and DARD and the Executive were inexcusably tardy in putting together anything approaching a reasonable compensation package.
‘Fortress Ireland’ catastrophically failed, aided by deliberate delay in Dublin in passing on essential notice and information to Northern Ireland, to which they knew pork and feedstuff had been exported. It is clear this failure was not accidental, but deliberate, with self interest driving the Republic’s every action, something which continued in the refusal to compensate for the havoc and loss they had caused north of the border.
“In other circumstances this episode would have caused critical re-assessment of the working and worth of what is called the ‘Fortress Ireland’ approach. But, because politics and sustaining the all-Ireland persona is more important to the DARD Minister than having in place a policy which gives us real protection, nothing has changed and, I fear, we are as vulnerable today as we were in the Dioxin scare to the threat posed by mismanagement and neglect in the Republic.
“What is required in animal health is a ‘Fortress Northern Ireland’ policy not the failed ‘Fortress Ireland’ pretence.
“I am also left to wonder what if any lessons have been learned by DARD and the Executive from their bungling of the compensation arrangements. The delay in putting together the package and the attempts to buy off farmers on the cheap, was appalling. The manner in which the Executive had to be dragged kicking and screaming to make any worthwhile offer was an illustration of bad government in action.”
