John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I concur with and add to what Deputy Cahill has said. This has gone on for a significant number of years. In fact, former Members of this House such as Mary White were part of the initial group of Deputies who were making themselves available to support Dan Brennan. In 2006, the Minister of the day sent a representative to Dan Brennan's farm and found he was an excellent farmer. Everyone locally knows that Dan Brennan and the Brennan family are excellent farmers. When he legitimately brought forward the concerns he had about his cattle and what was happening on his farm, he was not listened to. He was talked down to.

The Minister is the Minister of today. He must acknowledge what happened on Dan Brennan's farm. All of the evidence that has been submitted to the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and directly to the Department indicates that there was a clear problem with the factory. The evidence is now clear because the factory closed down and, soon after that, Dan Brennan's farm came back to full production.

I want to underline the serious problems it has caused Dan Brennan. It is not a simple thing to carry the fight against the State on your own when you are told every day you are wrong. When Dan Brennan looked at the various results and saw the information that was being withheld from him and information that was not given to those investigating, he had nowhere to turn to other than this House. He is turning to us as four Members of this Parliament this evening to ask the Minister to take a decision to investigate the matter fully and to give him the answers he deserves. I suggest the Minister puts together a team of three professionals to look at every aspect of this and to come back to him with the answers. Giving the standard reply we have been used to from the Department is not good enough because it is obvious what caused the problem in the first place.

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