FARMERS convicted of using "angel dust" on their cattle will in future lose the right to hold or trade in livestock for five years, the Minister for Agriculture"said yesterday.
Mr Yates said he was looking at ways to bring further legal sanctions against those who abused drugs, which would effectively put anyone using them "out of business".
He added: "I will be bringing in regulations which will bar them from trading for five years in the livestock sector. I am looking at making this a mandatory provision in the courts," he said.
"This will send the clearest possible message to all livestock producers that the small number of people involved in this illegal activity will be dealt with in the severest terms by effectively being put out of business," he said.
"I will be putting them out of business, removing their access to trade for five years, removing their herd number through proper court procedure - the starkest and clearest message I can send out to any would-be abuser."
He said the Animal Remedies Act 1993 which would be used in future cases carried penalties of £250,000 on conviction and prison sentences of 10 years. The legislation, he said, was the strictest in Europe.
He repeated that angel dust and other illegal growth-promoters were now only being used by "a residual hard-core element in the farming community", and that their activities would not be tolerated.
Support for strict action against abusers came last night from the two main farm organisations, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association and the Irish Farmers' Association.
The ICMSA president, Mr Frank Allen, called for a life ban from owning livestock on those convicted of using angel dust and branded such users as "traitors".
Mr John Donnelly, president of the IFA, said his association fully supported the necessary measures to stamp out the use of illegal substances being used by a tiny minority of farmers.