Harney suggests to IFA how farmers could have Ellis meat firm affairs investigated

The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, has suggested to the Irish Farmers' Association how farmers owed money by the collapsed meat company run by Fianna Fail TD Mr John Ellis could have its financial affairs investigated.

In a letter to Mr Tom Parlon, president of the IFA, Ms Harney said that if a successful application was made to the High Court to have a liquidator appointed to Stanlow Trading, a statement of the company's affairs, verified by affadavit, would have to be lodged in the High Court. Persons with knowledge of the company's affairs could be interviewed on oath.

"Under section 245 of the 1963 (Companies) Act, as amended, this may include officers of the company or persons known or suspected to be in possession of the property of the company.

"Section 245A also permits the court inter alia to order any such person whom it believes to be indebted to the company to pay to the liquidator the amount of the debt or any part thereof. Any recovered monies could subsequently be used to discharge some of the company's liabilities."

Before having the liquidator appointed the farmers would have to ask the High Court to return Stanlow Trading to the Register of Companies. The company was struck off the register in 1993 for failing to file annual returns. Despite encountering severe financial difficulties soon after it went into business, the company was never wound up.

Ms Harney wrote to Mr Parlon after he had asked about the possibility of an official inquiry being initiated by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Tanaiste said that as Stanlow Trading had been dissolved, she had no powers to act.

Even if a successful application was made to have the company returned to the register of companies, an inquiry by an authorised officer would be unlikely to discover much, as such officers proceed by way of the confidential examination of a company's books. It was unlikely the books of Stanlow Trading were still in existence.

Ms Harney said "better prospects for a tangible result" for the farmers might lie in the creditors seeking to have the company returned to the register of companies and then wound up.

As well as the debts to farmers, Stanlow Trading had a debt of £263,540 written off by National Irish Bank in 1989, in return for the payment of £20,000. Mr Ellis was also given £26,000 in 1989/ 1990 by Mr Charles Haughey, when two marts were threatening to have him declared a bankrupt.

The Stanlow Trading file in the Companies Office shows the company was formed by a company secretarial service in November 1985. Mr John Ellis and his two brothers, Cillian and Richard, are understood to have owned the company, though their names do not appear on the company file.

Farmers who sold cattle to Stanlow Trading Ltd over a period of just six to eight weeks in 1986 are owed approximately £300,000.