Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I recognise the significance of four Deputies coming together. It is not something you see very often in this House and I certainly recognise that in the context of this Topical Issue debate and the time the Deputies have given to this issue as part of the committee.

The matter being raised relate to events that took place many years ago, as the four Deputies said. At that time, my Department, along with other public sector bodies, invested significant resources in an investigation of animal health and environmental concerns on the farm in County Kilkenny. This exercise concluded 13 years ago and commenced a number of years before that. In June 2004, an interagency group was convened to examine the matter. It brought together a broad range of scientific expertise from my Department's laboratories, the Environmental Protection Agency, Teagasc, the Health Service Executive and Kilkenny County Council. This multi-agency approach was clear evidence of a significant effort by the State to get to the bottom of very distressing events, which were of significant concern to the individuals involved.

The investigation, led by my Department's veterinary laboratory service, reported its findings in June 2006. That report produced details of very comprehensive field and laboratory investigations undertaken on the farm to determine the cause of the animal health issues on the farm. It was provided to the herdowner and his advisers. In addition to this report, laboratory test results had also been provided to the herdowner on an ongoing basis.

Further to that, during the latter part of 2005, my Department funded a comprehensive animal health programme on the affected farm. This included a programme of mastitis control, calf vaccinations, the provision of calf hutches for the 2006 calving season and the provision of advice on enhanced biosecurity. I am advised that animal health and production on the farm had shown a definite improvement in the first five months of 2006. Calf health had been good and this was reflected in improved growth rates. Milk production and quality were also reported to have improved. Direct involvement of my Department’s veterinary laboratory service in the on-farm investigation then concluded in August 2006.

Subsequently and on foot of a request by the herdowner and his advisers, University College Dublin's centre for veterinary epidemiology and risk analysis, CVERA, was commissioned by my Department to conduct further epidemiological studies of problems on the farm. The CVERA report was completed in August 2009. This report was provided to the herdowner and his advisers.

The inter-agency group, comprising a range of expert agencies, reviewed the findings of both studies and published its conclusions in August 2010. It considered all of the comprehensive studies undertaken on this farm in detail and the interpretation of those findings by experts from the agencies involved. It concluded that the problems in this herd were multifactorial in nature and that common infectious diseases were likely to have accounted for much of the illthrift and poor growth rates recorded. It also concluded that there was no evidence of fluoride or cadmium intoxication of animals in this herd or of environmental pollution on the farm. The inter-agency review report was also provided to the herdowner and his advisers at that time. The other comprehensive reports I have referred to have been in the public domain for many years, since the conclusion of those investigative processes.

I certainly appreciate that the events around this time were exceptionally difficult for the farmer concerned and his family. However, these events took place many years ago and were investigated comprehensively over a number of years by a range of agencies with relevant scientific expertise.

I am aware that, as the four Deputies have outlined, this matter was recently discussed at the Joint Committee for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, chaired by Deputy Cahill and in which the other Members participate. In that context, I have not been made aware of any evidence of material new information that has been made available in respect of these matters. While I am aware that the witnesses who appeared before the committee dispute the conclusions reached by the inter-agency group in 2010, no evidence has been presented to question the specific scientific findings of the investigations undertaken by my Department's laboratories at the time. Given the very substantial resources invested in investigating these matters many years ago, the scientific approach taken to the inquiry, the multiple agencies involved and the passage of time since these events, I am afraid that no credible case has been advanced for reopening the matter at this stage.

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