A Fine Gael backbencher was accused of being a cowboy by a senior civil servant when he made representations on behalf of a constituent in 1997.
Mr Ulick Burke (Galway East) was eventually granted an oral appeal by the Department of Agriculture, "when all mechanisms by way of representations were exhausted", he told the Dail. He expected to be given a "reasonable hearing" and that the points he had made would be assessed on their merits. "I was told I was a cowboy, and told by a senior officer that what I was trying to do was make representations on a fraudulent application."
Officials in Agriculture House believed people who made small, technical mistakes were attempting fraud. "That is unacceptable," said Mr Burke. He was speaking on the second stage of the Agriculture Appeals Bill, 2001, which proposes to set up an appeals office for agriculture, similar to the social welfare appeals.
"I was brought in before four senior officers," the Fine Gael TD told the House. He found out later under the Freedom of Information Act that one of those on the interviewing panel had made 14 contributions to the file under review. "Also on that file was the statement of a senior officer in the Department saying not to reply to Deputy Burke on this question," he said.
The Bill allows the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, to select and appoint personnel to the new appeals board. That was a farce, said Mr Burke. "Because this appeals office is dealing almost totally with schemes that are grant-aided and assisted," he said, "it is imperative the Minister appoints people who are really independent - people from outside who can come in with a clean pair of hands."
There were some "wonderful people" in the Department who served the public in a "very encouraging and positive" way. But there were also "empire-building" officials in Agriculture House.