Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, the committee Chairman, Deputy Cahill, and all of the members of the committee for their report and the work they did on this. I acknowledge again the presence of Dan Brennan and his family members, as well as farm organisation representatives and supporters in the House today.

As I said in my earlier contribution, there has been significant investigation and assessment of this case over the years by many State agencies. I referenced the interagency group which was set up and included the Department's veterinary laboratories, Teagasc, the then South Eastern Health Board, Kilkenny County Council and the EPA, as well as UCD's centre for veterinary epidemiology and risk analysis, CVERA. There is long record here of assessments that have been done in the context of determining what happened. I acknowledge the work the Oireachtas committee has done. While my Department is clear that processes were followed and assessments were taken and looked into with all due regard, I accept the request for an independent review and assessment and will now carefully consider the next steps.

Again, I thank the parliamentary committee for its work. It invested significant Oireachtas time, on a cross-party basis, in assessing this issue, which I respect and which I will assess further in terms of the steps I am taking.

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