Fivemiletown cattle cull: Top civil servant says she is proud of Daera staff

​Katrina Godfrey said that where governance arrangements in Andrew Muir’s Daera have fallen short, she carries responsibility “for those shortcomings and for ensuring that those weaknesses are addressed”.

She was speaking as MLAs discussed the fallout from an external review into officials’ handling of the cull of 51 cattle near Fivemiletown in County Tyrone earlier this year.

The report by Ireland's former chief veterinary officer Dr Martin Blake set out a series of recommendations which the minister has accepted in full.

These included changes to the process for determining the best approach to enforcing court orders in how operations are planned and signed off – and changes to the way requests to dispose of livestock are handled.

Daera permanent secretary Katrina Godfrey told MLAs that as accounting officer, governance findings in the report caused her “significant concern”.

“I particularly accept the arrangements in place for escalation and senior oversight were not good enough. Senior leadership was aware that a planned operation was taking place, but the wider strategic risks were not adequately brought together and escalated.

“And when significant difficulties arose and the operational plan changed. The full implications of what happened were not escalated quickly or comprehensively enough”, she said.

The senior official added that Daera could have “done much more to consider appropriate engagement with people living locally, to explain what the department was doing and why”.

However, she said she was proud of Daera. She said: “I'm proud of the professionalism and commitment of the people who work in the department. Supporting our staff is important to me, but supporting staff and accepting organisational accountability are not competing objectives. Where our governance arrangements have fallen short, I carry responsibility as accounting officer for those shortcomings...”.