THE public attack on Larry Goodman by the Minister for Agriculture in the Dail yesterday reflects the growing unease in the Department that it alone will have to shoulder the bulk of the EU fines of £93 million arising directly from its stewardship of EU beef policies in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Mr Goodman and his group of companies walked away virtually unscathed from the £35 million tribunal which led to an EU investigation into the Department's handling of EU schemes in the early 1990s.
The Department and the taxpayer face fines of £75 million from the EU in terms of "disallowances" arising from the period covered by the tribunal, which investigated the entire beef industry, and a further fine of £18 million for irregularities in the tendering process for intervention beef in the same period.
It has emerged recently that it may not be possible for legal and other reasons for the Department to recover any of £75 million portion of the disallowances from the industry, no matter the level of the fines.
It is seeking to recover £1.8 million from the Goodman group arising out of irregularities at the Rathkeale and Shannon meats plants uncovered while the tribunal was sitting in 1992.
A special Government interdepartmental committee has been examining ways of recovering the bulk of the fines from the beef industry but its findings will not be known for at least another month when it reports to the Cabinet.
Intense efforts have been going on for over a year at EU Commission, ministerial and diplomatic level to reduce the fines but there is a growing despondency about the outcome. One well placed EU source admitted last week that Ireland was fighting an uphill battle and would be "very lucky" if it got £20 million knocked off the total bill.
The relationship between Mr Goodman, who regained control of his companies from the banks seven months after the beef tribunal report had been presented to Government, and Mr Yates, has never been warm.
Last spring at a major food exhibition in London's Earls Court, Mr Goodman was all but ignored by the Minister when Mr Yates was opening the Irish stand at the exhibition. Mr Goodman had not been invited to attend the opening.
A fortnight after the conviction of the manager and accountant of the Goodman plant at Rathkeale for conspiracy to defraud the Minister for Agriculture of intervention beef between 1988 and 1991, the Department moved to withhold export subsidies from the Goodman company.
On October 18th, it announced it was withholding £7 million in securities belonging to the company because of breaches of the beef export subsidy regulations over the previous six years. It also decided to delay the payment of a further £6 million in securities. Goodman International complained the fines were too severe and had nothing to do with any irregularities.
It accepted, however, that there were some small technical breaches of regulations due to factors outside the control of the company the outbreaks of BSE in Britain and the Gulf War.
On October 20th, Mr Yates said he had asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to consider the possibility of bringing criminal charges against senior executives of Goodman International arising out of the Rathkeale incident.
Earlier this month, the High Court ruled that witnesses' expenses incurred by Goodman International and Mr Goodman at the beef tribunal should be confined to those giving oral evidence.
Yesterday, as it was announced the EU had extended the time it will give to Ireland before ruling on the fines issue, Mr Yates attacked Mr Goodman in the Dail.