A new offer from John Ellis TD to farmers who were owed large sums of money when his meat company collapsed in 1986 is to be put to them in the coming weeks.
The Irish Farmers' Association is to place advertisements in local papers calling a meeting of 80 creditors of Stanlow Trading Ltd who are owed about £300,000 in amounts ranging from £200 to £21,000.
The IFA chairman in Co Mayo, Mr Sean Clarke, said: "The offer is still poor enough. It is a long way short of what it should be, but I think we have come to a point where we have to put it to the creditors.
"It is slightly better than what was on offer before, but even if it was 100 per cent of the amount owed, in the context of the past 14 years it would still be a derisory sum, but we don't seem to be able to progress it up even to that amount."
Mr Ellis had previously offered to sell off two properties in Dublin and Leitrim, but the total value of his offer was in the region of £100,000.
The Sligo-Leitrim TD and his brothers, Caillian and Richard, were the three directors of the Donegal-based company. The offer to be put to creditors is from John and Caillian, a member of Leitrim County Council. Richard Ellis, who lives in the Isle of Man, has refused to make any contribution.
A campaign to try to secure payment for the farmers began last year after it emerged that John Ellis had a £263,000 debt at National Irish Bank written off for a payment of £20,000 in 1991, and that debts to marts totalling £26,000 were paid by Charles Haughey. In this way he avoided bankruptcy and held his Dail seat.
It has been established in the courts that the Ellis brothers are not personally liable for the debts of Stanlow Trading Ltd, but the IFA campaign aimed to force Mr Ellis to pay on the basis of "a moral responsibility".
The controversy forced Mr Ellis to resign as chairman of the Oireachtas joint committee on agriculture last year. Mr Ellis subsequently met IFA representatives, including its president, Tom Parlon, but turned down an invitation to a meeting of creditors.
Over recent months, negotiations have been continuing between solicitors for Mr Ellis and the IFA. Mr Clarke said advertisements would be placed in local papers in the next two weeks giving details of the meeting, which would be held before Christmas.
The current offer is unlikely to satisfy farmers outraged that Mr Ellis had his debts paid off while they experienced considerable hardship. A number of small farmers sent all of their saleable stock that year to Stan low Trading and never received any payment. One of these was a woman with five small children whose husband had just died. Mr Willie Armstrong, from Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, said he was forced to sell a farm after the company failed to pay the £21,000 it owed him.
Most of the 80 farmers come from Mayo, Donegal and Roscommon. All but one of those left unpaid were from outside Mr Ellis's Sligo-Leitrim constituency.