{"id":470871,"date":"2026-05-28T06:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/470871\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T06:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:52:12","slug":"vet-found-to-have-engaged-in-intimidating-behaviour-appointed-to-state-board-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/470871\/","title":{"rendered":"Vet found to have engaged in \u2018intimidating\u2019 behaviour appointed to State board \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon <\/a>has placed a senior vet on a State board despite an industrial tribunal finding that he engaged in \u201cintimidating\u201d and \u201cpatronising\u201d actions towards a whistleblower who raised animal welfare concerns.<\/p>\n

Heydon <\/a>cited Robert Huey\u2019s 12-year term as Northern Ireland chief veterinary officer when appointing him six days ago to the board of Horse Sport Ireland (HSI), the national body for showjumping and equestrian sports. <\/p>\n

Huey was heavily criticised in a 2021 ruling in a constructive dismissal case won by a Northern Civil Service whistleblower, who later received a \u00a31.25 million (\u20ac1.44 million) settlement from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. <\/p>\n

The tribunal found Huey\u2019s actions were \u201cdetrimental\u201d to Tamara Bronckaers, a Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs vet who was found to have been constructively dismissed after raising protected disclosure concerns. Such tribunals, based in Belfast, are independent judicial bodies that determine claims made on employment matters. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe found it to have been reasonable for the claimant to regard Mr Huey\u2019s actions as intimidating, patronising and belittling and dismissive of her as a professional,\u201d the ruling stated. <\/p>\n

Heydon\u2019s department <\/a>declined to say whether the Minister was aware of the tribunal conclusions when appointing Huey to the HSI board. <\/p>\n

Huey is understood to have been one of four candidates interviewed by officials from the Department of Agriculture and the Northern Ireland Sports Forum for the HSI board seat reserved for a Northern representative. <\/p>\n

\"\"Shane Ross: Why politicians won’t fix RT\u00c9 – or let it fail<\/p>\n

The Department of Agriculture <\/a>\u201cengaged with\u201d the Northern Ireland Sports Forum \u201cto identify suitable candidates to represent Northern Ireland on the board of Horse Sport Ireland\u201d, said Heydon\u2019s department. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe NISF [Northern Ireland Sports Forum] identified a list of potential candidates from their database of individuals who have expressed interest in joining the board of sport organisations. This list included Dr Huey and therefore he did not apply for the post.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no substantive reply from Horse Sport Ireland or Huey in response to questions for each submitted to HSI\u2019s office in Naas, Co Kildare. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be inappropriate to comment on a ministerial appointment,\u201d said a Horse Sport Ireland spokesman. <\/p>\n

The tribunal found Huey, chief veterinary officer from 2013 to 2024, provided a \u201cdeeply unsatisfactory\u201d account of an encounter with Bronckaers on November 1st, 2017. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not find the account given by Mr Huey to be candid, reliable or full and we therefore draw an adverse inference in relation to the reason why this incident occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling said Bronckaers had shown \u201cthat the fact that she raised protected disclosures was a material influence on the detrimental treatment of her by [another official] in particular and by Mr Huey in the encounter she had with him\u201d. <\/p>\n

It added: \u201cThe detrimental treatment was thus on grounds of the claimant having raised protected disclosures.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has placed a senior vet on a State board despite an industrial tribunal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[895,42,22479,43,2443,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-470871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-fianna-fail","tag-headlines","tag-martin-heydon","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}