Healy Rae blasts ‘despicable’ cull
KERRY Independent TD and farmer Michael Healy Rae has sharply criticised the use of the Irish Army in the controversial cull of cattle on the farm of John Hoey in Monaghan.
Members of the Defense Forces shot dead five cows at Mr Hoey’s farm in Monaghan last week. It emerged that a security detail made up of the Army and Gardaí were on the property accompanying a debt collection service when the cattle were shot by army marksmen.
The incident sparked major controversy when it came to light last week, with Kerry TD Michael Healy Rae highlighting the issue in the Dáil days later.
He described the order to kill the cattle as a ‘disgraceful’ decision and was sharply critical of the use of the army in the case, alongside a private debt collection firm.
“The fact that Irish Army Men were used by a financial debt collecting company to shoot cattle belonging to a Monaghan farmer... is an absolutely disgraceful and despicable act”, Deputy Healy Rae said.
The cull was on the back of health fears, with State sources suggesting there was TB present in the herd. But Deputy Healy Rae said he was ‘reliably’ informed that the cattle had not been tested for the disease.
“There is a spin trying to be put on the whole affair now by trying to say the cattle had TB, even if they had it was the first time that this type of action would have ever been used to deal with a situation like it.”
“I was reliably informed that they hadn’t even been tested so how could anyone even know whether they had TB or not?”
“This shows the high handed action of some of the people involved in debt collection and it should not be tolerated and the people that are responsible should hang their heads in shame,” said Deputy Healy-Rae.