Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is not every day that someone from Monaghan and someone from Galway, which, in fairness to the Deputies here, are not near Dan Brennan's farm, come together. When Dan Brennan came in, I did not know him from Adam. The words of the song "Willie McBride", "torn, battered and stained", came to my head. He has gone through hell and back with his family. When you listen to his story, it is clear that the least we need to do is what Deputy McGuinness said, which is to put together a group of three independent people. We also need a debate here in the Dáil. Why were the results of three feeding studies, two during the factory's operation and one when it was closed for a time, not published? Why were the 2005 findings of a botanist from UCD who had been commissioned by the EPA not taken seriously? Teagasc, UCD and several other vets concluded that the problem was outside the farm but the Department refused to even entertain that idea. Dan Brennan was basically blamed and accused of being a bad farmer while UCD and others conclusively proved that the issue had nothing to do with the man. When this farmer was told that the problem was poisoning, why was this not included in the terms of what UCD was to look into? It could not look at it. What went on was a total farce. As Deputy Cahill said earlier on, the figures given to UCD and the EPA's figures were totally different.

The Minister was not there and I am not blaming him but there is something going here that is rotten to the core and this innocent person, a small man, is up against the State. I spoke to Dan Brennan in the last few days and I told him that I could not promise him anything but that my heart went out to him. I said we would do everything we could but that, in my opinion, the State was covering something up here. Justice must be done for that man. The EU has failed to do anything. He has gone through the petitions and all of the usual palaver. I told him I could not promise him anything but that we would do our best. He has been given many promises down through the years but left flat on his face. He deserves justice. That is the minimum he deserves. He deserves an independent inquiry such as Deputy McGuinness has proposed, something Deputies Cahill and Carthy have also highlighted. We also need to have a debate in here because what has gone on is wrong, wrong, wrong.

See this speech in context