Vol. 465 No. 2
133 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry his views on the contents of a newspaper article (details supplied) of 31 March 1996; his role and that of his Department in the mitigation of the EU beef fines; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9372/96]
The article referred to contained a number of serious inaccuracies, of which the most damaging was a statement that I agreed to pay the original £98 million EU beef fine 12 days prior to the decision to mitigate the fine being taken by the EU Commission. This is utterly untrue and without foundation.
The Deputy is fully aware of the intensive negotiations over many months involving officials, myself and the Government to mitigate the fines. These negotiations continued right up to 27 March when sufficient reductions were agreed to by the EU Commission. Because of gross inaccuracies contained in the article referred to by the Deputy, I have had no option but to refer the matter to my legal advisers.
