THE Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, has said he is disappointed at the lack of progress in the campaign to have fines totalling £103 million reduced. They were imposed on Ireland by the EU Commission for irregularities in the beef trade in 1990-91.
Speaking to journalists at the European Parliament after a meeting with the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, the Minister said the fines had "serious implications" for next week's Budget and "will not help the financial arithmetic for 1996".
Mr Yates said he and the Government would be "stepping up the campaign" to have the fines reduced before the Commission makes its final decision, probably on February 7th. He later discussed the matter with the Irish Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn.
Mr Yates also asked Mr Fischler to restore the cuts made in the beef export refunds since last November which have cost Irish farmers about £70 million. He would be raising this at the next Agricultural Council.
On the question of the fines, or "disallowances" as they are officially known, Mr Yates said they were "totally disproportionate and punitive". A conciliation body had recommended a mitigation of about 50 per cent and it was "quite unfair that the Commission will not discuss, let alone concede, this finding".
The Commission was looking to impose severe anti fraud penalties, which Ireland believed were unjustified and were being handed own for political reasons. There was a possibility of an appeal to the European Court for the £18 million part of the fines arising from what the EU considers to have been irregularities in tendering for intervention meat contracts.
Over £75 million of the fines derive from the findings of the Tribunal of Inquiry into the Beef Processing Industry. About £10 million arises from a dispute over the valuation of stocks of intervention meat destroyed in a fire.
The Fianna Fail MEP for Leinster, Mr Liam Hyland, expressed his "grave disappointment" in a statement at the outcome of the meeting between Mr Yates and Mr Fischler on the beef export refunds issue. The non resolution of this problem "continues to be a source of major concern for Irish farmers and only serves to create instability in this key sector," he said.