John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I am not a member of this committee so I am thankful for the time the Chairman is giving me. I am here to support Dan Brennan, his wife and the community of Castlecomer but I can assure all present that if this was in any other constituency, I would be sitting here as well. Dan Brennan and his family have been blackguarded by the State and a number of State agencies. What the committee has heard tonight is the truth from a man whose farm we can judge from driving into it. He is an excellent farmer. When you drive into that yard, you know you are with a farmer who is professional, experienced and is conducting his business in the way modern farmers do.

At every turn he took, Mr. Brennan was met with an obstacle. This was the case between 2004 and 2009 when all these complaints were investigated. He went to the European petitions committee and the information piece tells us the committee's members supported Mr. Brennan and acknowledged he was correct in the claims he was making, as far as they were concerned. Therefore, we have established that. We have also established that out of all the analysis, and without getting lost in the figures, there was something wrong between Mr. Brennan's farm and the factory. That is pretty clear. Like Mr. Dempsey, when I visited the farm recently I saw the difference between what is there now and what was there during the course of all these investigations.

If the committee is to have an inquiry, I suggest it be one that would bring in all of the players, including a representative of the factory. We need compellability on that and terms of reference. I would like to see that happening. Dan Brennan has been blackguarded by the State and is describing to us what is essentially a cover-up and a deliberate attempt to label him a poor farmer. He has the right to defend himself against that but he cannot do so because there are two big players on the other side of the bench. There is the State with its unlimited funds and a commercial interest with unlimited funds that will do anything to prevent Mr. Brennan from having the truth upheld by some part of this State that has blackguarded him. Therefore, as politicians representing the public, we should not be afraid to demand an inquiry because it is in the interests of the State to learn where it made the mistakes or who did what wrong to Dan Brennan to ensure it does not happen again to someone else. If we turn a blind eye to this and do not demand and put in place the ultimate inquiry to get at the truth, we will, like the EU petitions committee, become merely a sounding board for people. This must stop and I am suggesting it should stop with Dan Brennan.

There is a mountain of evidence, as I have seen from the time I first engaged with Mr. Brennan and his wife. I am delighted to see the IFA here in support. It is indicative of what the association feels about Dan Brennan's case. The Oireachtas needs to respond to him. I suggest that the committee investigate the type of inquiry I have outlined. That would remove the responsibility and the costs from Dan Brennan and place them on the State.

It put him in this position anyway. It would give an opportunity to all State agencies and the commercial interests involved to come before a public session and explain themselves. Otherwise, further cynicism will be created about politics, politicians and what they are doing and not doing. Allowing these questions to remain unanswered is not good.

I will finish on this point. I have been asking parliamentary questions. As Mr. Brennan knows, I have been going to and fro with the Department for a long time. The departmental officials told me they did not and would not conduct any investigations relating to the period after 2008 in spite of the fact that it has spent €600,000 on the investigation so far. If that kind of money - taxpayers' money - is being spent on an investigation, surely there is an obligation to bring it to an end by pointing the finger at the State legally, or at Mr. Brennan. The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is falling short of its responsibility in spending €600,000 and not getting to the end of the problem. Mr. Brennan's life to this point has been ruined. His family have been put under enormous pressure. I do not know how he has withstood it. It is a great credit to his wife, family and community that he has. He is turning to us, as Oireachtas Members, this evening. The question and challenge for all Members of this Parliament is this: are we going to allow the State to trump Mr. Brennan in terms of the truth? Are we going to allow the State to use taxpayers' money to shut him up? My answer to both of those questions is that we should not tolerate that type of standard. The truth is the truth. An inquiry is the only way to deal with this and with the wrongs that have been inflicted on Mr. Brennan and his family.