Tánaiste under fire in Dáil over sugar deal

UPROAR over the way Irish sugar workers lost their jobs dominated the Dáil yesterday in the aftermath of an EU ruling that the closure of Mallow’s processing plant could have been avoided.

The Dáil session had to be suspended as opposition TDs demanded Tánaiste Mary Coughlan explain her role in the affair while Agriculture Minister in 2006.

Ms Coughlan refused to take the emergency debate on the European Court of Auditors judgment, and left it to her successor at the agriculture portfolio, Brendan Smith to claim out-of-date information had not triggered the shut down of the Irish sugar industry.