NORTHERN IRISH beef farmers facing financial ruin over the dioxin contamination scare yesterday won High Court permission to challenge a refusal to pay them compensation.
The owners of five cattle herds are seeking a multi-million pound payout after their meat was banned from entering the food chain.
So far the Stormont Executive has agreed to introduce a cull and disposal scheme for animals the restrictions apply to. However, it is only prepared to meet the estimated £4 million (€4.29 million) slaughtering and rendering costs.
The farmers, among eight cattle owners in Northern Ireland whose herds have been prohibited from the meat market, want a ruling that the government should pay them the value of their animals.
They were granted leave to apply for a judicial review after Mr Justice Weatherup heard of their “dire circumstances” since the ban was imposed.
With thousands of animals set to be destroyed, the farmers’ lawyers claimed it would be “the end of the line” for them.
The food scare which broke out late last year has been blamed on unlicensed oil used at an animal feed factory in the Republic.
Ireland’s pork meat sector was plunged into crisis after potentially cancer-causing dioxins were discovered in feed.
The alert spread to cattle when the Food Standards Agency confirmed eight herds had tested positive for contamination.
But the North’s Department of Agriculture has resisted the farmers’ claims by arguing they should instead be granted access to a compensation scheme being run south of the Border.
Lawyers for the department stressed a voluntary culling scheme was on offer, with the decision on whether they wanted to take part left to the farmers themselves. After granting leave, Mr Justice Weatherup fixed the case for a full judicial review hearing in March.