Mountrath Co-operative Livestock Mart has agreed to lease the mart premises with the view of getting sales up and running again following a four-year closure.

The Co Laois mart ceased trading in an unexpected move during Chirstmas of 2018.

An SGM took place last Wednesday night, 8 February, where there was a majority vote of 98 out of 101 shareholders, chair of the committee Ger Brickley told the Irish Farmers Journal.

The Coolrain dairy farmer said that a deal has not yet been finalised. However, there has been a “tremendous amount of good will” towards getting the mart back to its full strength.

"I can confirm that the mart has agreed to go down the route of leasing the premises. We are at an advanced stage of discussions and have overwhelming approval from the shareholders.

We are very happy with the plans we have in place we just need to get them finalised,” he said.

Mountrath Mart was particularly known for its Thursday evening weanling sale and its Wednesday sale of cattle.

“Cattle came from nearly all over the country, from Kilkenny, Limerick and Clare, particularly for the high quality weanling sales. Roscrea, Tullamore and Ballinakill are the three nearest marts and they would have all benefited since we closed.

“People have been hounding us ever since [2019] to reopen it, but there was no point reopening unless we were on a sound footing and we are close to that at this point” he said.

Local Borris-in-Ossory farmer, Kieran Scott told the Irish Farmers Journal that the mart was a huge loss to the area when it closed.

"I'm really hoping it does work out, I would have often gone to the mart there but had to go further afield when it closed. It was a tremendous mart and the cattle were of the best of quality,” he said.

In other business, the co-op also voted last week to sell 3.5ac of ground to Mountrath GAA.

The GAA club is bordering the mart’s site which sits on about 30ac in total.

"They were voted on the same night but they are completely separate. Mountrath GAA have a growing club but they are very cramped for space. They will now be able to extend out into our field and they'll have extra capacity for the juvenile club.

“We wouldn't have sold it to anyone else, it was more to give back to the community than anything else. A lot of business people in Mountrath, shopkeepers and so on, invested in the mart from the first day it opened, we felt we owed them something," he said.

Brickley said that there had been talks between the mart and the GAA for the last 10 years. A formal approach was made 12 months ago.