Well-known Tipperary farmer and serial litigant John A Burke of Duncummin House, Emly, is appealing the refusal of the High Court to grant him a judicial review of penalties imposed by meat factories on cattle presented for slaughter.

He has just lodged an appeal in the Civil Court of Appeal against a court decision made two years ago refusing him the judicial review.

The Tipperary man wants the High Court to look at the penalties applied where cattle have had four or more movements and applied on cattle that have not been in the herd of the owner for the previous 70 days.

He has named as the respondents Larry Goodman, Meat Industry Ireland, the Minister for Agriculture, the Department of Agriculture and the IFA.

In sworn documents submitted to court, Burke makes arguments with which most farmers will agree.

Draconian

The penalties are draconian and would appear to have no legal status, he said.

They bare no relation to meat quality, meat quantity, disease control or science, he said. “No other animal being slaughtered at Irish meat plants is subject to any form of movement penalty,” he said.

He suggested that the movement restrictions are “an outrageous violation of the fundamental rights relating to ownership, free trade, and livelihood” and “an attack on the livelihood of all cattle dealers, who depend on the movement of cattle from one owner to another as a fundamental aspect of their trade”.

It is unacceptable that a finished animal bought at auction must be kept for 70 days at great cost before it’s deemed acceptable for slaughter.

Processors immune

Meat processors, through their agents bidding at marts, are able to slaughter cattle immediately after purchase – and don’t penalise themselves.

John Burke is now appealing the refusal on grounds including that the matter is not to do with the price of cattle; that his rights to private property and to earning a livliehood are being infringed.

Burke has been involved in many previous proceedings, generally representing himself.

This led to an Isaac Wunder order being imposed on him back in 2011.

An Isaac Wunder order blocks an individual from taking legal proceedings without first obtaining permission from the president of the High Court.