The national database set up to trace the movement of seven million animals had been "seriously corrupted", a senior Department of Agriculture veterinary inspector has told Tralee District Court in the first case of its kind brought against a livestock mart.
Kingdom Co-operative Livestock Mart, Carrigeendaniel, Caherslee, Tralee, Co Kerry, yesterday pleaded guilty to six counts of supplying false information in January 2002 regarding the movement of bovine animals to the competent authority, in this case, the Cattle Movement Monitoring System, contrary to European Community Regulations. The mart was fined €4,200 and ordered to pay witness expenses of €750.
Judge Terence Finn said he did not have to remind people of the foot and mouth crisis and how animal movement and attempts to trace animals during the crisis had become such an issue.
It was explained that cattle were put through the central computerised system as having been moved through a mart, when, in fact, they had been sold farm-to- farm and had never come within miles of the mart.
The mart manager, Mr Denis Griffin, Talaught, Fenit, Co Kerry also pleaded guilty to three counts of supplying false information and three counts of false entry on a passport relating to a numbered animal. He was fined €5,400 and ordered to pay witness expenses of €750.
Ms Elma Sheahan, for the Department of Agriculture, said in 2002 a farmer had made a complaint to the Longford District Veterinary Office. He had bought animals from another farm and became worried about their origins when he sought the animals' passports.
Mr Brian Flaherty, superintendent veterinary inspector with the Department's special investigating unit, visited the mart in Tralee in May 2002.
Mr Griffin admitted the animals did not come through the mart. There had been a monetary transaction, a small fee for each entry on the passport. Mr Flaherty said agents or brokers found it easier to collect commission if animals came through marts.
What happened however meant the database of seven million animals was seriously corrupted, Mr Flaherty told Judge Finn.
"The database was set up by the EU to allow the tracing of animals. If, for example, there was a disease outbreak, the wrong animals and the wrong herd owners would have been identified," Mr Flaherty said.
Mr Griffin said all mart trading and movement of livestock had ceased during the 2001 foot-and- mouth outbreak. When some restrictions relaxed on the movement of animals, he and five others in the industry set about logging sales.
The mart received €5 for recording transactions of farm-to-farm sales. He now accepted he used the wrong system in informing the Department of these sales.
He had never intended defrauding the Department, all animals were tested and the system in the mart in Tralee had now been changed.