A High Court judge has given Portumna Mart until the end of the week to provide evidence that the mart is no longer in significant debt.

The mart’s licence to sell cattle was suspended by the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) on Monday 28 April following an order granted by the High Court.

At a hearing on Tuesday 13 May, Mr Justice David Barniville ruled that the mart’s licence to trade will remain suspended until it can prove that it has gone from being in a deficit of €1.6m to a surplus of €140,000 in a matter of weeks.

The court heard on Tuesday that the PSRA received a spreadsheet from the mart on Monday evening 12 May suggesting that the mart’s current account is now in surplus of €140,000.

However, counsel for the PSRA argued in court that no supporting documentation had been provided by the mart and called for an affidavit outlining the steps that were taken to be compiled.

“It doesn’t really have any evidential status in the absence of a verifying affidavit explaining the steps that have been taken to put together this document.

"If correct, obviously it would be welcome news, I’m sure, for the authority. I would have thought this document should be put on affidavit with an explanation as to how there has been such a remarkable turnaround from a deficit of €1.6m,” legal counsel for the PSRA said.

Robustness

He also called into question the “robustness” and “accuracy” of the information provided in the spreadsheet as well as the mart’s “standard of record keeping”.

He added that the authority did not “understand how enough money has been brought in” not simply to balance the account but to have €140,000 approximately in the bank.

Legal counsel for Portumna Mart told the court that the mart has now hired a full-time in-house book keeper and had formed a “credit committee” to operate the credit facility since the departure of former mart manager Craig Lovett.

“The previous manager had charge of this credit facility where I’m told a lot of the issues did lie. Mr Lovett has now left the organisation entirely.

“A credit committee has been established, the three members of which are in court today – Mr Pat Harding, Mr PJ Conroy and Mr David Canning,” counsel for the mart said.

He said that if that mart was allowed to reopen, it would ensure that all sales would be paid on the day “bar perhaps five commercial buyers as vetted by the applicant [the PSRA] – that the applicant would have the final say on who those buyers are and, even in that case, it would be five working days maximum to allow cheques clear”.

In response, the judge said that it was clear that the mart was trying to clear its debts and that sworn evidence would need to be provided.

The case will return to the High Court on Monday 19 May in anticipation that a sworn affidavit has been provided before 5.30pm on Friday 16 May.

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