O'Keefe must be moved

Opposition parties are calling on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to move Junior Minister Ned O’Keefe out of the Department of Agriculture.

Mr O’Keefe is now the subject of a Public Offices Commission investigation surrounding claims that he failed to make disclosures to the Dail.

Minister O’Keefe voted against a Dail motion on banning meat and bone meal without revealing that his family farm was one of only 17 farms that were licensed to produce the feed.

Fine Gael deputy leader, Jim Mitchell, says that in the interest of public confidence Mr O’Keefe should be transferred from the Department of Agriculture immediately.