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 out and make a very clear statement about this: number one that there are clear-cut practices in the department when any evidence comes to light about wrongdoing or mistreatment of animals and number two that he is sending a clear message about food standards," he said.
"He's the minister in situ for responsibility for that department. He must clarify things to send a clear message about how things are done in Northern Ireland."
A spokeswoman for Dr Brady told the Belfast Telegraph she had a "commitment to improving how any concerns are dealt with across all departments", but said decisions around the treatment of Dr Bronckaers were a matter for the Department of Agriculture.
A decade ago, when he was health minister, Mr Poots tried to strengthen whistleblowing legislation, saying staff in the health service had a "moral duty" to raise the alarm.
The Department of Agriculture was contacted for comment.
However, it has previously said that Mr Poots had no role in the case.
After the case was settled, the department said it "unreservedly apologises to Dr Tamara Bronckaers".
It said it had commissioned an internal review into the case.
Mr Grimason, a former BBC NI political editor, said Dr Brady "really needs to get involved in this".
He said that ministers should not generally get involved in staffing matters.
But he said there were unique circumstances due to "the size of the offence that was caused to this poor woman, the refusal to take action, and the fact that this isn’t some sort of administrative exercise — this is about protecting our reputation across the world in terms of what is going on in relation to TB and animal welfare and producing stuff which can be sold on to the world market".
