A Stormont whistleblower who raised issues about animal welfare and meat traceability has been awarded a £1.25 million payout.
Senior vet Dr Tamara Bronckaers has obtained an unreserved apology from Division of Agriculture, Atmosphere & Rural Affairs (Daera) after a tribunal final 12 months discovered she was constructively dismissed from her job.
Her attorneys have described the fee as the most important of its sort ever awarded in Northern Eire.
Traceability
Dr Bronckaers, who labored for the division’s Veterinary Service Animal Well being Group, had raised issues about severe breaches of animal welfare laws and traceability inside the meat provide chain associated to the deletion of data on the motion of bought cattle between farms.
She resigned after claiming administration ignored her issues and subjected her to unfair therapy for flagging the problems.
Dr Bronckaers mentioned: “The previous few years have been extraordinarily harrowing for me and my household.
“This final result has been a very long time coming and I can transfer on within the data that I did what was proper, and I now have a long-waited and justified apology from the division.
“I witnessed first-hand animals struggling unnecessarily and consider that over a five-year interval in extra of 20,000 animals had been concerned in deleted strikes which might have had important implications for traceability inside the provide chain.
Safety
“I strongly believed that the division was failing in its responsibility to guard animal welfare and due to this fact I couldn’t proceed doing a job that I wasn’t being allowed to hold out ethically. I couldn’t sit again and watch these breaches persist.”
The vet’s solicitor John McShane, from agency McCartan Turkington Breen, added: “That is the most important settlement of its sort in Northern Eire and the result for Dr Bronckaers is wholly justified making an allowance for the detriments she has suffered that haven’t solely affected her profession, however her household and her monetary state of affairs.
“I’m fairly merely astounded by Dr Bronckaers bravery.
“She was keen to do what was ethically proper to the detriment of herself, her household, and her way of life in retirement. It’s a selection that only a few folks would make as the simpler path would have been to maintain quiet.
“Hopefully, the result of this landmark case gives reassurance that on the very least, these people who select to whistle blow do have safety beneath the legislation.”
This Writer
David Younger is a reporter with PA.
