A row broke out and the sitting was suspended briefly as TDs were told that the £70 million EU fine against the State for breaches of intervention beef regulations in the early 1990s could not be recovered from offending beef producers.

The Democratic Left TD, Mr Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South-West), was ordered out of the House after heated exchanges about "fiddles" and "cover-ups", and the sitting was suspended for five minutes when he refused to leave.

The sharp exchanges arose when the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, said that, based on the best legal advice, there was "no route to recovery" of the money from companies involved in breaches of the regulations on intervention beef in 1990 and 1991. The legal advice, he said, was given in 1996 when the rainbow coalition was in power. It was a "major disappointment", but that was the reality of the situation.

Mr Eamon Gilmore (DL, Dun Laoghaire) who raised the issue during agriculture questions, said the unemployed man who carried out a few "nixers" had to repay the money, but "the beef baron who squanders millions of pounds of taxpayers' money doesn't have to pay a penny".

The fine related to a European Commission decision to refuse to pay for almost £50.25 million of intervention beef in 1990 and 1991 because of breaches of the control systems.

The commission also refused to pay a further almost £18.5 million for those years because of breaches in tendering procedures for intervention beef. The Government had appealed to the European Court of Justice against the decision but the court had upheld it in a judgment on October 1st.

Mr Gilmore said it appeared to be the end of the appeal process because "some big players swindled" large sums of money and in some cases with the "collusion" of the Minister's department. The taxpayer was "stuck for £70 million" because of "irregularities or negligence". He added that the Minister was obliged by EU regulation to seek the return of the money from the offending companies.

Mr O'Keeffe said it was a "surprise" to him that there was collusion by the Department which, he said, performed an excellent job. He added that it was "quite annoying" that there was no route of recovery.

Mr Gilmore wanted to know if this meant the Government was dropping the legal proceedings against the Goodman Group for fraud at the AIBP plant in Rathkeale, for which two people had been found guilty. Mr O'Keeffe said proceedings were continuing against two plants but they had not yet gone to court.

Mr Rabbitte protested that the Government had given a commitment to the Public Accounts Committee to recover taxpayers' money. The money was "fiddled" and the Government was obliged under Article 8 of the relevant EU legislation to recover as much money as possible.

The Minister repeated, however, that, according to legal advice, they were not entitled to recover the money. When the Leas Ceann Comhairle, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, ruled that it was time to move on to the next question, Mr Rabbitte said it was "the biggest cover-up of all time". Dr O'Hanlon said there was no cover up.

He repeatedly asked Mr Rabbitte to resume his seat and then ordered him to leave. The Democratic Left TD refused to move and the House was then suspended for five minutes. When it resumed the Ceann Comhairle, Mr Seamus Pattison, said he had been asked to rule on a matter of "gross disorder" and he suspended Mr Rabbitte from the House, after which the TD left.

According to the rules of the Dail a vote will be taken on the suspension today after a division was challenged.