It emerged at this week's meeting of farmers left unpaid by the liquidation of the Co Monaghan mart that the company running the sales had been operating without a licence for more than one year. A spokesperson for the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) has confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that Edward Paul Nugent Ltd’s licence expired on 19 February 2017.

Farmers expressed frustration that the mart was allowed to trade without a licence for so long without their knowledge.

The PSRA spokesperson said that the authority has been obliged since 2011 to maintain a Register of Licensees, which is publicly available on its website.

"Once a licensee’s licence has expired, their details are removed from the Register of Licensees and placed on the Register of Expired Licences list," they added.

Customers of a mart or auctioneer can check their licence by looking for their name on the list. The list of current licence holders runs to 434 pages, and the list of expired licences to 142 pages. The spokesperson said the PSRA considered that downloading the lists in Excel or PDF format to find the relevant information was "customer friendly".

Eighty farmers owed €160,000 after mart closure

Farmers can check marts and auctioneers' licences online

The closure of Castleblayney Livestock Mart has shed light on the licensing of property services professionals.