The Master of the High Court has accused the Department of Agriculture of using "tactics akin to the Nixon era" after a department official directly sent a farmer's EU assistance payment of €21,000 to the Revenue to meet the farmer's alleged tax liability.
The department "need to behave themselves", the Master said.
Master Edmund Honohan made the remark as Co Tipperary farmer John Hanrahan brought a motion seeking the return of two cheques totalling over €21,000 which, Mr Hanrahan said, were forwarded by department officials to Revenue.
Mr Hanrahan last year lost a High Court bid to stop the removal and sale by Department of Agriculture officials of 223 cattle from his 250 acre farm in Carrick-on-Suir.
Mr Hanrahan claims he is due some €45,000 from the European Commission under the single payment scheme distributed by the Department of Agriculture.
Yesterday, he told Master Honohan that he was seeking an order preventing the Department of Agriculture from forwarding a second payment to the Revenue.
Master Honohan said that, in what was "akin to a tactic from the Nixon era", somebody from the Department of Agriculture had called the Revenue and asked if there was a debt owed by Mr Hanrahan. The department had also told the Revenue what it should say in a letter seeking payment, he said.
"This was an attempt to shut Mr Hanrahan down," the Master said. "I am sure the Minister for Agriculture would be appalled if she knew what was happening."
This was, he added, "a clear example" of the Revenue, prompted by the Department of Agriculture, "digging up an old debt" and issuing a notice to the department so it would draw on funds due to Mr Hanrahan in part payment of a Revenue debt.
However, the money seized were not a debt due to the Department of Agriculture but money due by the European Commission to Mr Hanrahan.
The department, he said, is still liable for the money it has diverted to Revenue. The Revenue "should have stayed out of this", the Master said. The department faced a serious claim and he advised no further cheques should be diverted to Revenue.
The Department of Agriculture, he added, "need to behave themselves".
Master Honohan said he would transfer the matter to the judicial review list and would make no order.