Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Dan Brennan, Francie Gorman, Denis Drennan and representatives of the farm organisations to the House. I am sure Dan's family are watching at home as well. This is an important day for Dan and his family. I know Dan. He is a responsible and good farmer. I visited his farm with former Deputies Mary White and John Gormley during the depths of that crisis and saw at first hand what was going on. It was seriously untoward and wrong. I know Dan to be a good farmer and I know this is as much about pride and vindication of his practices as a farmer.

I welcome the work done by Deputy Cahill and the agriculture committee. I sat in on and watched that session and listened again to harrowing evidence from Dan. To have to relive that again must have been very difficult for him and his family but the committee did a good job in taking on board that evidence. The commitment that my ministerial colleague, Deputy McConalogue, has given today is an important one and I really welcome it. I welcome the fact that he has committed to an independent review of this awful case. As other Deputies have said, it needs to be an expansive review that looks at all of the scientific evidence and takes everything into account. The terms of reference for the review are going to be very important. Today is an important day and a good day for Dan after what has been a very long and arduous journey for him and his family to clear their name and vindicate what they had known all along, which was that there was something very amiss that was not of their making.

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