Portumna Mart has been given the go-ahead to resume trading, a High Court judge has ruled.

The mart’s weekly cattle sale will recommence this Wednesday following a three-week suspension.

The case between the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) and the mart returned to court on Monday 19 May, where an affidavit was produced detailing how the mart went from being in a deficit of €1.6m to a surplus of approximately €140,000.

This information was brought before the court last week. However, the suspension could not be lifted without sworn evidence explaining how such a deficit was recouped.

An affidavit was sworn by the mart's recently hired full-time bookkeeper Lorna Lyons ahead of Monday's case.

Legal counsel for the PSRA told the court on Monday that the affidavit produced to the authority for consideration ahead of the case was "quite scant" in terms of explanation. However, it did not seek to continue with the suspension of the mart's licence.

'Concerned'

"The authority remains concerned in relation to the position, but what we have agreed are a series of orders," counsel for the PSRA told the judge.

Mr Justice David Barniville said that the mart "had done what was expected" of it since last week's hearing.

"The fact that the mart was in the position to state that there was a surplus on the account was good news. There was little enough information as to how this situation had radically turned round within a relatively short period of time and there was no affidavit verifying that schedule.

"But because there was a real urgency on the mart's point of view to get up and running as quickly as possible, I was prepared to put the matter into this afternoon and to allow the mart to put on affidavit an explanation as to how the figure had changed from a deficit to a surplus in a very short time," the judge said.

The affidavit, he said, explains certain entries that were incorrectly made to the books and records of the mart and while it is "very short", there are "very extensive exhibits" to it.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal after court on Monday, chair of the mart board Pat Hardiman said that all sales in future will be on a strict zero-credit basis.

This Wednesday's sale will include, calves, cows, bullocks and heifers.