Paul Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I said I had a couple of issues. There is the peer review issue and the fact the EPA put this report together, the EPA has sent it out and it is afait accompli. The Commission is not analysing the EPA's results. It is taking the report. It is analysing the EPA's report.

I will use our friend, the farmer in Leitrim, who may be put out of business as a farmer based on the fact he is red and Leitrim may not be even over the criteria. If he was a sportsperson, if he had a failed sample and if it was possible to put him out of the game he played or the sport he participated in, he would have recourse to the famous B sample but that is not an option here. There is no peer review of the EPA's decisions here. There is no B sample checking. I am not saying there is anything wrong with any of the EPA's tests but there will always be a question. When you have one person making a decision without consultation and without somebody getting a chance to test, as I said, let it be a B sample or something similar, or even the EPA sending them off to a second laboratory for a test, it will always be queried and questioned.

In answer to the Cathaoirleach, the EPA has its disclaimer which, Dr. Cotter states, is standard at the front, but its complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed. In a situation where complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed and we try to strive for perfection and accuracy, the easiest way is to get a second opinion or second sampling and at least have that backup information there that the EPA could stand over.