Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I wish to raise the results of an European Parliament Petitions Committee on the problem of ill thrift, stunted growth and low milk yields on a farm in north County Kilkenny. The case has come to national prominence and it has repercussions for agriculture.

In 1990, shortly after a local factory changed ownership, Mr. Dan Brennan, who owns a mixed-farming farm in Castlecomer, County Kilkenny, began noticing problems with animals and the environment on his farm. In what veterinary experts refer to as lack of thrive, animal growth was retarded and stunted and milk yields were low. Trees and hedgerows showed shrivelled branches and dead leaves.

In the spring of 1991, Mr. Brennan was unable to sell his animals on account of lack of growth. Despite the absence of sickness among them, and the feeding of supplements such as cobalt, zinc, copper and all the standard vaccinations one would expect, the situation did not improve through the mid-1990s. By 1995, Mr. Brennan noticed that heifers, typically bought in at 360 or 370 kg that should weigh 500 kg six months later had gained a mere 30 or 40 kg in weight. It was thought that water supply was the source of the ill thrift, but a change in the farm's water source yielded no change.

In 2000 the animals were put on 50 acres of rented ground on a nearby farm. There, Mr. Brennan's veterinarians observed the animals began to look completely different. When they were brought back to the sheds on his own farm that winter they began to lose weight again. Laboratory tests done in Kilkenny confirmed this.

In the winter of 2003-04 feeding trials were conducted on the farm. Two sources of silage — one from Mr. Brennan's farm and one external source — were used for the trials on both Mr. Brennan's and an external herd, and yet intermittent weight loss was recorded among the animals using either silage feed. Department officials told Mr. Brennan he had conducted the tests incorrectly. The Department officials subsequently ran tests the following winter. Mr. Brennan's cattle and an external sample were concurrently tested on two separate sites, being fed the exact same feed by the same, independent personnel for four months. During the four months of feeding on his farm weight loss was recorded, but the same did not occur among the animals off site. Despite the implications of these tests — that the weight loss was occurring because of environment rather than feed or herd — the Department failed to act on this. A year later, in 2006, departmental veterinary officers issued a report stating that the source of his animals' problems was disease management by Mr. Brennan.

In October 2006 the Department veterinary officers ceased to conduct tests on Mr. Brennan's farm. A team of veterinarians from UCD then commenced tests. When feeding trials in the winter of 2006-07 were conducted, it was noticed that the animals were gaining weight. The local factory, however, whose emissions fall into the area of Mr. Brennan's farm, was closed during the course of these trials. Two letters from Teagasc in the past two years have stated it does not believe it is the practices on Mr. Brennan's farm which have caused ill thrift and that there is some other cause.

Dr. Robert Milikan, an American veterinarian from the UCD epidemiology unit, has agreed with this statement. Upon Dr. Milikan's recommendation, Mr. Brennan and his family were promised by the Department and by the Minister, Deputy Mary Coughlan, in July and October 2006, that when a downturn in cattle occurred again, post mortems, liver biopsies and digestibility studies would be carried out. A downturn happened in July 2007 and despite twice meeting the Department's deputy chief veterinary officer, none of this work has been carried out. Despite the recent report of the European Parliament Petitions Committee into its investigations into the ill thrift of Mr. Brennan's cattle, which stated that a probable causal link exists between toxic emissions from local industry and ill effects on the livestock, trees and hedgerows on his farm, there has still been no action from the Department. After years of injustice, Mr. Brennan is still getting the cold shoulder.

I should like to know what the Department and the Minister are going to do on the matter. This issue is not only of importance to Irish farming but is of immense interest from a wider European and environmental perspective.

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