The Department of Agriculture has been told to report to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, on its long-running efforts to prosecute an Offaly farmer for breaching brucellosis controls, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
The leader of the Labour Party, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said yesterday the Department of Agriculture's behaviour towards the farmer, Mr John Fleury, Killyon, Co Offaly, demanded "urgent investigation".
District Court judge Mr Justice Tom Fitzpatrick threw out the case against Mr Fleury on Monday, ruling that the Department had taken an unacceptably long time in pursuing the case .
Mr Fleury formed a joint company with Golden Vale Marts to export live cattle in 1997, but it went into liquidation in 1999 after the Department claimed that five out of 220 cattle had tested positive for brucellosis.
The Department of Agriculture last night told The Irish Times it intended to appeal to the Circuit Court to overturn the ruling made by Mr Justice Fitzpatrick at Athlone District Court.
The judge, said a Department spokesman, ruled that the Department was responsible for the delay in the case. "We don't accept that the blame for the delay, or at least all of it, is our fault."
The farmer has complained to the Garda Bureau of Criminal Investigations, the Competition Authority and the Ombudsman, while some papers on the case are with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In the Dáil, Mr Rabbitte said: "I stress that Mr Fleury is not under investigation by these bodies, but a Department of State headed by one of his Taoiseach's colleagues in Government is." Over 160 summonses against Mr Fleury are still outstanding "in circumstances that are reminiscent of the summons' spree" against the Donegal publican, Mr Frank Shortt, said Mr Rabbitte.
Mr Fleury will be due "large amounts of compensation" if his charges of harassment are "even partially proven in future", while Department officials could face "serious criminal charges", he said. The farmer, he said, believes that the Department of Agriculture began a campaign of harassment against him after he successfully challenged a 1997 ban on live cattle exports.
The Taoiseach said he knew that Mr Rabbitte would not have raised Mr Fleury's case in the Dáil unless he believed him. He said he would now ask the Department for a report on the case.