The Minister of State with responsibility for Food, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, faced renewed calls for his resignation last night amid claims that he breached the Ethics in Public Office Act by not declaring his interest in a pig farm and feed mill.
Mr O'Keeffe insisted he would not be resigning, following the revelations that pigs on his family farm were fed with bone-meal, linked to the spread of BSE. But the opposition parties said they would be raising the matter with the Taoiseach in the Dail today.
The Labour Party last night called on Mr Ahern to dismiss Mr O'Keeffe, claiming he breached legislation by not declaring his material interest in the pig and feed business when he was appointed to his post in 1997.
A Government spokesman rejected these allegations. He said a declaration of interest was not required if a TD had already declared the interest in the statement of registerable interests furnished to the Dail.
The spokesman said Mr O'Keeffe had fully declared his interests as required every year. Mr O'Keeffe is responsible for issuing licences to feed meatand-bone meal to pigs. His family farm holds one of the 17 such licences issued. The Department of Agriculture pointed out last night that Mr O'Keeffe had no direct role in issuing bonemeal licences.
Labour also claimed that Mr O'Keeffe breached the legislation by failing to disclose a clear conflict of interest when he spoke and voted against a Labour Party motion in the Dail last week for a total ban on the feeding of meat-and-bone meal to all animals.
In his statement last night, the Minister rejected claims that his family farm breached a voluntary quality assurance scheme by feeding pigs bone-meal.
He said the farm was precluded by Galtee Meats from supplying pigmeat under the Bord Bia quality assurance scheme because meat-and-bone meal was being fed to the pig herd in 1998.
Statements last night from both Bord Bia and Galtee Meats confirmed that the O'Keeffe farm never supplied pigs for processing under the scheme.
However, the Labour Party deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, said as Minister for food Mr O'Keeffe was given the responsibility for policing the licence of the O'Keeffe pig operation to use meat-and-bone meal. He said under the Ethics in Public Office Act a minister was obliged to inform the Taoiseach of any official function he might perform in which he or a person connected to him had a material interest, as would appear in this case.
Mr Howlin said the Minister could not have exercised any power under the Diseases of Animals Acts, or under the Diseases of Animals (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) Orders, to take decisions on its application without finding himself in a conflict of interest.
The Cabinet Handbook guidelines state that Ministers or Ministers of State must not engage in any activities that could reasonably be regarded as "interfering or being incompatible with the full and proper discharge by them of the duties of their office".
The Fine Gael agriculture spokesman, Mr Alan Dukes, said he accepted the Bord Bia finding that no pigs fed with meat-and-bone meal on the O'Keeffe family farm had been processed under the quality assurance scheme. However, Mr O'Keeffe should have drawn attention to his shareholding in the pig farm and feed mill during last week's Dail debate, Mr Dukes said.
In his statement, Mr O'Keeffe said Ballylough Milling Ltd (the feed mill attached to the pig farm) has been licensed by the Department to use meat-and-bone meal in pig rations for use on the farm.
The farm was inspected for potential participation in the Bord Bia quality assurance scheme on May 5th, 1998, and the use of meat-and-bone meal was noted by an independent farm inspector. Accordingly, he said, he was precluded by Galtee Meats from supplying pigmeat under the scheme.
"Bord Bia has today carried out a detailed on-site review at the Galtee plant. "This review has revealed no evidence that pigs from the O'Keeffe farm have been processed under the quality assurance scheme", he said.
Mr O'Keeffe did not directly answer the allegation that he was in breach of legislation.
He said while he has a financial interest in the pig production enterprise concerned, he is not a company director and the day-to-day management and operation is controlled by his son Pat. He said he had listed his shareholdings in the current register of Dail members' interests.