The Fianna Fail TD, Mr John Ellis, who had a £243,450 (€309,118) debt to National Irish Bank written off in 1989, has apologised to farmers who lost money as a result of the collapse of his business, while attacking the press for recent coverage of his affairs.
In a statement published yesterday in the Leitrim Observer, the Sligo-Leitrim TD condemned what he called a "media frenzy" and a "Dublin media campaign" of "character assassination" against him to which he would not "bow the knee". Some commentators had no regard for the farmers but were "jumping on a bandwagon to embarrass me personally, the party and the Government".
Mr Ellis said he was not legally obliged to pay the farmers who were owed money as a result of the collapse of his abattoir business, Stanlow Trading, in the late 1980s. However, he accepted he had a "moral responsibility" to do so but did not have the means.
Mr Ellis's statement said: "The facts that have been the subject matter of the media frenzy over the past week are matters which have been in the public domain for the past 10 years.
"I have never sought to deny these facts or hide from their consequences. I come from a small farm background. I became involved with my brothers in an abattoir business in 1986 which proved for me a financial disaster. Our company, in common with many other businesses, collapsed and as a result there were, and remain, a number of creditors of this company, many of them farmers who supplied the meat company with cattle.
"As a result of this business failure I lost everything. Various farmers sued me personally and the courts found as fact that I was not personally liable but instead the company was.
"Nevertheless I accept I have a moral responsibility to these farmers and if I had the means to pay them I would willingly do so.
"Unfortunately, I do not have those means. I apologise to those farmers for the difficulties created by this business collapse.
"Much comment has been made that I have built a family home in recent years. The building of this home was financed by the sale of my existing home together with a mortgage.
"That NIB paid off my personal liability does not unfortunately help the farmers be paid. The present media frenzy, however, has nothing to with the plight of those farmers."
