"I'll be writing to Bertie Ahern and telling him what I think of the whole thing, " said Joseph Walshe of Knockmore, Ballina, who was left owed �7,000 when Stanlow Trading went out of business. "I feel thoroughly disgusted with the arrogance of Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail."

John Ellis (55), who was a senator at the time, and his two brothers, Caillian and Richard, set up Stanlow Trading Limited in December 1985.

It ceased trading in 1987 and was wound up in 1993 with debts of more than �300,000 owed mostly to 80 farmers in the north-west.

Joseph Walshe unsuccessfully sued John Ellis in the Circuit Court and the judge awarded legal costs against him. The wealthy Sligo-Leitrim TD sent the sheriff to Walshe's house and, subsequently, took him to the District Court to recover his costs.

"There's no way Bertie Ahern doesn't know what went on, " said Walshe. "My case is bad, but it's nothing compared to the Nallys' case."

During the 2002 general election campaign, Mary Nally, a widow with 11 children, approached Bertie Ahern while he was canvassing in Sligo and handed him a letter recounting her family's dealings with John Ellis. She asked him to read the letter, which detailed how she and her late husband, John, had been left owed �14,600 by Stanlow Trading. After the election, she received an acknowledgment of her letter. That was the last she heard.

"They don't really care about families like us, " said her son, David Nally, when he heard the news of Ellis's appointment to the Seanad.

"I don't expect anything else from them. Bertie put him up as a candidate at every election to be a TD. He's kept him there all these years after what he did to us. Our whole family was affected badly by it. None of us children went to college.

Only four of us finished school.

My mother never had a holiday in her life. There was always stress in our house."

Meanwhile, new senator Eoghan Harris yesterday committed himself to supporting Fianna Fail in the Seanad, while maintaining his status as an Independent.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, he said he would be "very slow" to vote against Fianna Fail legislation "unless it gives me serious grief". Describing himself as a "very loyal person", he said he did not believe in throwing a petulant fit of independence for the sake of it.

"I hate guys in a company who are mentored by somebody and then when they become boss, they turn on their mentor, " he said.

Harris stressed he was an Independent but that "as a person of the centre", he wouldn't have a lot of differences with Fianna Fail, or Fine Gael, on issues such as crime, the economy and the North.

"You'll find I have more problems with the politically correct than with Fianna Fail or Fine Gael, " he said, adding that most of his ideological opponents would be "over on the other benches".