Labour has written to the Public Offices Commission about Minister of State Mr Ned O'Keeffe's failure to declare that the pig farm in which he has an interest has a licence for meat-and-bone meal.
Mr O'Keeffe's statement yesterday that he has no responsibility for issuing such licences appears to be contradicted by a 1997 ministerial order. Mr O'Keeffe said on RTE's Morning Ireland programme: "I have no responsibility for issuing licences." However, a Government order of 1997 explicitly gave Mr O'Keeffe responsibility to award licences.
The order states "all the powers and duties of the Minister for Agriculture and Food conferred on the Minister by or under the Acts specified in the First Schedule to this Order . . . are hereby delegated to Ned O'Keeffe, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture and Food". The Acts specified include the Diseases of Animals Acts 1966 to 1996, under which licences are issued allowing meat-and-bone meal on or near farms housing ruminant animals.
Labour's deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, accused the Government of "seeking to distort the truth and the law" after the Minister for Education, Mr Woods, again claimed Mr O'Keeffe had fulfilled all his obligations under the Ethics in Public Office Act.
Mr Woods told the Dail yesterday that Mr O'Keeffe had declared his interest in the farm in the statement of registerable interests that he furnished to the Dail, and that this discharged his legal obligations.
Mr Howlin said this declaration did not disclose that there was a bonemeal licence in operation in respect of the farm, and that this "conferred a significant financial benefit and is an entirely separate interest to the farm".
He said that while it was not required to be declared in the annual register, it was required to be declared "in the course of a Dail debate . . . where the consequence or effect of a decision on the subject matter in question may be to confer or withhold a significant benefit".
Mr O'Keeffe had voted against a Labour motion last week that would have banned the use of meat-and-bone meal, which has been linked to BSE, he said. He was required by law to declare in the circumstances that he and persons connected to him stood to benefit from the defeat of this motion, said Mr Howlin.
Fine Gael's Agriculture spokesman, Mr Alan Dukes, yesterday accused Mr O'Keeffe of being involved in what was "clearly a potential conflict of interests".
He said that while 90 per cent of such farms no longer used meat-and-bone meal, "this farm made a deliberate decision to continue using it and not to go with best practice". This also put Mr O'Keeffe in a difficult position, as his Department's mission statement listed the promotion of food safety as one of its objectives.