Athenry Mart in Co. Galway has had its licence suspended by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
In a statement, the department said that the licence issued to Athenry Mart was suspended last Thursday (April 22).
According to the department, the suspension was as a result of an apparent breach in Covid-19 procedures.
Department officials are in contact with management at the mart in order to progress matters and resolve the situation, the statement said.
Since early in the Covid-19 pandemic, marts have been required to submit standard operating procedures (SOPs) to the department outlining how they would operate while maintaining Covid-19 restrictions around physical distancing and other issues.
The department approves these SOPs, and marts are required to continue to observe them in order to continue trading.
Each mart is subject to ongoing inspections to monitor compliance with Level 5 Covid-19 SOPs and breaches may lead to the suspension of the mart licence.
In terms of the general state of play for marts and Covid-19, marts are still required to operate online at the moment.
Earlier this month, the department said it is “monitoring the situation and will liaise with marts”, on restrictions.
“Marts have been able to operate online throughout Level 5 and must continue to do so. Any ease of current restrictions will be subject to prevailing public health concerns”, the department had said.
The department also noted that, between January 1, 2021 and March 14, 2021, online mart sales for cattle was 94% of the figure for traditional sales in the same period of 2020, before the first Covid restrictions were implemented.
The corresponding figure for sheep was 100%.
Last month, funding was announced for livestock marts for information and communications technology (ICT).
Livestock marts were allowed to apply to the department for a grant of a maximum of 5,000 to cover 50% of expenditure by a mart on ICT infrastructure.