Around 100 farmers owed money since the closure of the mart in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, are watching a long-running court case between a fishing crew and the Department of Agriculture closely. At a recent meeting organised by the IFA, they received legal advice that the case may open an avenue for compensation when a Government body gives the wrong advice.

The case was taken by Eugene Bates and Brendan Moore against the Department of Agriculture and the Marine.

Bates and Moore were fishing off the coast of France in 2003 and the Department gave them advice that they had permission to do so. That was wrong and the French authorities detained them and their boat, imposing tens of thousands of euros in fines and charges.

The High Court and the Supreme Court have both found that the State was liable to compensate the fishermen’s losses and rejected an argument by the Department that it would open the “floodgates” to numerous claims.

The case remains before the courts and Castleblayney Mart creditors hope that a decision in the new year could apply to the communication surrounding the loss of an auctioneer’s licence by EP Nugent Ltd, the operator of Castleblayney Mart.

While the company lost its licence in 2017 and received several warning letters from the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA), it was allowed to continue trading and display its licence number until it closed and went into liquidation in March 2018.

Farmers have said that the PSRA should have publicised the loss of the licence to protect them from the risk of insolvency at the mart. The PSRA has argued that it was up to farmers to check a complex register of hundreds of auctioneers and companies’ names on its website to verify EP Nugent’s status before selling animals through the mart.