Vol. 573 No. 4
132 Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if he will make a statement on the recent settlement between his Department and the AIBP group regarding irregularities uncovered in the declaration of intervention beef during the early 1990s. [25579/03]
The settlement in question principally concerns actions taken by my Department against the AIBP group in respect of irregularities in the operation of the beef intervention system during the early 1990s. The irregularities included the non-declaration of intervention beef deboning yield and substitution of beef during canning operations. There were six actions taken in all, three by my Department and three by the AIBP group, who were seeking the release of a number of payments which my Department had withheld, pending resolution of the main actions, as well as the return of a special export refund licence for their Rathkeale plant.
All six cases have been settled and payment has been made by AIBP in the sum of €3.81 million, which is largely in respect of the undeclared yield and canning cases. The sum received allows my Department to make full recovery to the EU of the irregularity amounts reported. Following receipt of the settlement sum from AIBP, the payments which my Department had withheld were released. These two payments totalled €0.94 million. The agreement was approved by the Government on the basis of the legal advice given by counsel and the Attorney General and brought to an end seven years of litigation.
