The Property Services Regulatory Authority (PRSA) has suspended Portumna Livestock Co-operative Mart from selling cattle for the next fortnight.

The PRSA sought and was granted sanction by the High Court to suspend Portumna Mart's licence to sell.

This suspension came into play on Monday 28 April and is effective until Tuesday 13 May, at which time the matter will be back before the High Court.

The mart was due to hold a calf and weanling sale on Monday evening 28 April and a cattle sale on Wednesday 30 April, but issued correspondence to customers on Monday morning informing them that the sales were cancelled.

A spokesperson for the mart said: “There will be no sales held this week in the mart, but we hope to be back up and running in a week or two."

Where to from here

The PSRA was established in April 2012 and is the statutory body with responsibility for licensing and regulating the property services sector in Ireland.

One of its roles includes ensuring that marts operate under stringent guidelines, with a particular emphasis on client account maintenance.

The PSRA guidelines also apply to mart auctioneers and all personnel selling stock must also comply with the regulations. Mart compliance with the regulations ensures that any mart cheques will be honoured.

The PSRA maintains a property services compensation fund paid for by the licensed property services providers (licensees).

The purpose of the compensation fund is to provide compensation to clients of licensees who have sustained a loss as a result of the dishonesty of a licensee.

The PSRA states: “The licensee must have had a valid licence at the time the property service was provided. Dishonesty, within the meaning of the 2011 Act, does not equate to losses suffered as a consequence of the negligence or incompetence of a licensee. Any such losses should properly be addressed to the licensee’s professional indemnity insurance policy.”

The compensation fund only comes into play where the licensed business is unable to fulfil its payment obligations.

In the case of Portumna Co-Operative Livestock Mart, the management or committee will need to get their financial affairs in order before 13 May 2025 and the PSRA will need to be satisfied that the mart can trade without any risk to its clients’ payments.

This will include ensuring any outstanding payments to clients are brought up to date and then ensuring funds are available to cover sales.

In essence, a mart needs to have enough funds in its client account to cover payment on animals or goods traded. This has become a trickier proposition for marts, given the sharp rise in animal values in recent months.

In previous such cases, marts have raised money to ensure their client account is in order by securing payment on funds owed, leveraging loans on assets or raising funds via their customer base.

In all cases, the mart must be able to provide security to the PSRA that re-approving their licence protects the licensee’s clients and ensures funds are available to honour payments.