Dr. Tom Ryan:

I might just talk the Deputy through the logic model that we use in these kinds of investigations. A very serious fish incident was reported and our first reaction was whether one of the EPA's licensed sites was responsible. We reacted to that and carried out an investigation. We have accounted for those facilities. Yes, there are serious issues of non-compliance in one of them, but there is no causal link. Then we look at local authority permitted sites and activities. Cork County Council has accounted for those. Then we look at things like biological effects. Our colleagues in the Marine Institute have looked at them and ruled them out. Then we look at environmental conditions. We have looked at that and assessed the assimilative capacity, and the discharges into the river and ruled them out. Then we are left with the possibility that it was some kind of undetected environmental accident. Once we go there, we are into the area of assessing whether it was an undetected criminal act, either intentional or reckless. From our perspective, it is beginning to look like we are essentially looking at the devastating consequences of an unsolved environmental crime.