A Co Cork farmer and his wife, who had to sell their farm and home when their dairying enterprise failed, have been awarded £170,000 compensation by the High Court against the Minister for Agriculture.
Mr Patrick O'Donovan and his wife, Nora, of Inishshannon, were awarded the damages by Ms Justice Laffoy in respect of losses incurred as a result of the Minister's error in law in the distribution of milk quota. The court had heard that the O'Donovans had to sell their 74-acre farm at Dromerk, Dunmanway, in 1996 for £240,000 and their home and three acres a year later for £60,000 as a result of mounting debt, illness and an inability to cope.
Ms Justice Laffoy said the O'Donovans experienced financial difficulties almost from the time they inherited the farm in 1981. By 1996, they owed the banks £125,000 and in reality the farm was lost by the time the Milk Quota Appeals Tribunal, on the grounds of hardship, had allocated him an extra 20,000 gallons quota.
Ms Justice Laffoy awarded Mr O'Donovan £45,924 in respect of loss of income; £45,085 for capital losses on the sale of the farm, stock and machinery; £2,385 for loss of co-op shares; £14,300 for a superlevy fine liability; and £20,000 damages. Interest awarded on loss of income and capital losses was estimated to bring the total award to £170,000.