Tipperary Fresh Foods Ltd, Nenagh, was sold last week for £1 million in breach of an agreement with the Minister for Agriculture, the High Court has heard.
Mr Justice Finnegan was told that the company had been funded with £450,000 from the EU through the Department of Agriculture's FEOGA scheme.
Mr Paul Flannery, counsel for the Minister, said that under the scheme the company had agreed that the premises or other assets, funded through FEOGA, should not be sold without the consent of the Minister.
Last week the semi-State company, SFADCo, which had also funded the company, obtained an injunction restraining the company from disposing of the proceeds of the sale below a figure of £300,000.
That order was vacated yesterday on an undertaking to the court by the company that it would not dissipate proceeds of sale beyond that figure. Mr Justice Finnegan granted the Minister an interim mareva injunction.