The High Court has quashed instructions and seizure and detention notices issued by the Minister for Agriculture and Food concerning imported maize gluten, ruling that the Minister lacked legal authority under the provisions cited in those orders.
Albatros Feeds Limited brought judicial review proceedings after the Department ordered recalls and detention of maize gluten discharged at Foynes and Ringaskiddy in November 2004. The company sought certiorari, a court order quashing the decisions. The case was heard in the High Court’s Commercial List on 16 and 17 February 2005.
The dispute followed tests that found small numbers of bone spicules in samples. The Minister’s notices relied on the European Communities (Processed Animal Products) Regulations 2000, but those regulations did not expressly grant the Minister power to issue the instructions, the judgment said. The court considered whether a provision applying separate animal nutrition inspection regulations could provide that authority. It held that the 2003 replacement regulations did not authorise the actions in this case, because their inspection powers applied to checks under specified directives that did not include the 2000 Regulations.
The Minister also argued that other European measures and the European Court of Justice’s decision in Bellio provided a legal basis. The judge rejected that argument, holding that the Minister could not switch to a different legal basis after the orders had cited the 2000 Regulations. The judgment also said that the other measures relied on did not independently authorise the orders in the circumstances before the court.
The judgment separately expressed the view that the regulations’ definition of “processed animal proteins” had to be met before powers under them could be exercised. It said the evidence did not establish the presence of processed animal protein as defined. The judge did not decide the further agreed questions on that issue, or Albatros’s claims about the validity of the regulations, human rights and damages.
The court refused the Minister’s request to refer questions to the European Court of Justice, concluding that the decisive issue was whether the orders were authorised by Irish law or directly applicable European legislation. It granted certiorari, quashing the instructions. The ruling did not determine Albatros’s damages claim.