The High Court has refused an application by Ethical Farming Ireland to cross-examine two Department of Agriculture witnesses in proceedings challenging the regulation of live exports of unweaned calves from Ireland to continental Europe.
Ms Justice Nessa Cahill delivered judgment on 27 January 2026. The NGO claims that the Minister for Agriculture is failing to comply with EU animal-transport rules in areas including journey records, feeding, watering, welfare and inspections.
The present ruling does not decide those substantive claims. It concerns only whether two witnesses for the Minister, Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Lorna Meaney and veterinary inspector Ricardo Gatica, should be required to give oral evidence and face cross-examination on their affidavits.
Ethical Farming Ireland argued that there were conflicts concerning matters such as access to water, missing journey logs, stocking densities, feeding before transport and time spent at ports.
Cahill J held that cross-examination in judicial review is generally appropriate where there is a genuine conflict of fact, or a substantiated challenge to the credibility or reliability of factual evidence, which must be resolved before the court can decide a material issue.
The judge found that threshold had not been met. Many of the disagreements identified by the NGO concerned interpretations, conclusions or inferences rather than contradictory facts. Several underlying facts were also undisputed, including that unweaned calves are not fed during the sea journey.
The court said the substantive proceedings largely concern legal questions about what EU Regulation 1/2005 and the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 require of the Minister.
The application to cross-examine Meaney and Gatica was therefore refused. Costs were provisionally reserved for determination by the judge who ultimately hears the main case, subject to any further submissions.