Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

The issue in this case was that Mr. Fannin had been in receipt of very large sums of money for reactors and income supplement. In the previous period, he received quite substantial sums. The allegation in the State's case was that there was an attempt to produce false positives in a TB test. False positives can be produced through all kinds of methods. A TB test is carried out when tuberculin is injected into the animal's skin by a vet and a lump develops. That lump is then measured. We have come across many cases of all kinds of products being injected into animals to produce false positives, including water. It does not necessarily need to be toxic. I do not think there was ever a suggestion that a particular toxic substance was used. The animals in this case passed both ante and post-mortem examinations and were deemed fit for the food chain. There is nothing wrong with an animal which has had water or some other product like that injected under its skin.