Serious risks of fraud and food safety underpinned the move to prevent one of the country's largest horse exporters from trading in recent months, a senior Department of Agriculture inspector has told Sligo District Court.
Superintendent Veterinary Inspector Ann Quinn told the court that the department was very mindful of the financial impact its actions had on Felix Burke and his family, who run a sport horse export business out of Sligo.
But she said in June, inspectors had given the Burkes ten days to provide sufficient information to properly identify more than 80 horses that had been placed under restrictions on their farm.
However, the required clarifications had not been forthcoming.
She said risks were identified in the rate at which Mr Burke’s business had grown from what was a relatively small operation before 2021 to become one of the country’s top five exporters of horses.
Judge Brendan O’Reilly was hearing evidence on the second day of an appeal by the Burke family against the department’s decision to restrict the business run by Felix Burke and his son Edward, which they said is facing financial ruin unless it is allowed to trade again.
Judge O’Reilly was told that there were unresolved issues relating to many of the horses under the restriction notice but that there were particular concerns with respect to some categories of animals.
Old passports still in circulation, court told
Ms Quinn said 11 horses had been issued with Northern Irish passports, where authorities said they should not have been and the identification documents have now been deemed invalid.
The department needed to establish the true identities of these horses.
She said there were three horses with two identities which meant old passports were still in circulation and, even though the Burkes did not trade in slaughter horses, the documents could be used by others to compromise the food chain.
"[In these cases] There is a second passport in circulation… This creates a very clear risk of fraud and a very clear risk of food fraud," she said.
She added: "We are not leaving another spare passport out there to be picked up by somebody else."
In another case there was evidence of Connemara ponies with passports that had been defaced or damaged, with the integrity of the passport book compromised.
Ms Quinn said her office became involved in June after the department’s district office in Sligo flagged concerns that it could not certify the export of 12 horses that had been due to be sold to mainland Europe by Felix Burke.
Their concerns arose following matters that had come to light in the RTÉ Investigates documentary, Horses - Making a Killing.
This triggered inquiries by the department’s special investigations’ unit and follow up inspections of Mr Burke’s premises at Collooney, Co Sligo.
Ms Quinn said the unit had to satisfy itself of all traceability issues because the department did not just have responsibilities to the Irish equine industry but also had a role in the integrity of the countries we export to such as Sweden and Denmark.
'We have learned a very hard lesson' - Edward Burke
Earlier in the day, Edward Burke gave evidence for a second day and explained that his family ran a respected business that had never been in trouble with the law.
He said they had been punished for documentary failures that had not been enforced or prioritised by the department until recent months and he had always acted in good faith.
Mr Burke said because of the department’s actions, his family had been unable to trade through its busiest time of the year and he had made every effort to provide the information sought by the department.
He said they accepted their paperwork was not to the required standard, but he could not resolve instances where errors already existed and he could only commit to improve his systems into the future.
Mr Burke said: "We have learned a very hard lesson of the last four months, our livelihoods have been taken from us. Our business has been closed.
"Going forward we will implement a much more stringent system but that system cannot be applied retrospectively… There may have been failings but I fail to see how it merits the closure of our business."
Watch: RTÉ Investigates: Horses - Making a Killing
He said his family now had to find ways to care for the horses they could not sell on while the restrictions were in place but that their financial resources were "not a bottomless well".
"We have made some mistakes and these mistakes have proven to be immeasurably costly," he said.
Ms Quinn said the department had not thought the restrictions would continue for so long.
"We are very mindful of the disruption this has caused. Our door is open but we have to be aware of our obligations," she said.
Mr Burke said on all occasions his famliy’s exports had been inspected by department vets and issues with his paperwork had never been raised until the broadcast of the RTÉ Investigates documentary.
