AGRICULTURE minister Edwin Poots has been urged to make a formal statement about a vet who was pushed out of her job for whistleblowing.
Dr Tamara Bronckaers was forced out of her job in 2018.
She won an industrial tribunal last September, but the Department of Agriculture appealed that verdict, only agreeing to settle the case two weeks ago.
The whistleblower, who had worked for the department for 19 years, said she found breaches of animal welfare at livestock markets as well as failings in the way cattle movements were recorded.
Dr Bronckaers said the issues could impact the traceability of meat as well as the spread of diseases including bovine TB.
The judge who heard the case said at several points that she did not believe the evidence given by two key figures - Northern Ireland's chief vet, Robert Huey, and Dr Bronckaers' line manager Julian Henderson.
The executive's former director of communications, Stephen Grimason, yesterday denounced the "scandalous behaviour".
He told the Belfast Telegraph that head of the civil service Jayne Brady must intervene in the case.
The SDLP's Patsy McGlone, a member of Stormont's outgoing agriculture committee, said Mr Poots must make a statement as leader of the department.
"We need to start taking people seriously, particularly people who make serious, evidence-based accusations about the treatment of animals," he said.
He said he was stunned to read the industrial tribunal's damning judgement.
"The minister himself has to come...
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