Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The second Topical Issue has been submitted by Deputies Cahill, Fitzmaurice, McGuinness and Carthy. They wish to discuss the case of a farmer in County Kilkenny whose farm was hit by environmental contamination. I must apologise to the Deputies who have tabled this. I had indicated we would give two slots to this. That did not transpire but I will, with the agreement of the House, give an additional minute to each Deputy wishing to contribute on this matter if they are happy with that. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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The case did not happen on the watch of the current Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine but is an historical case. Dan Brennan appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine around this time last year. He has been in Brussels twice with this case and has got no answers. He looked for his file that was submitted to Brussels at the time but they refused to give him back his file.

Dan Brennan deserves answers. We do not know what happened on his farm but many questions must be answered. I will pose some of them here this evening. Why did the trees die on Dan Brennan's farm? Why did bones grow in his cattle's tissue and kidneys? Why did the milk yield of his cows double when the factory closed? Why did his cattle's weight at two years go up from 320 kg to 520 kg when the factory closed? Why did the foliage on his farm recover after the factory's closure? After cattle trials were performed on his farm involving cattle being taken from his farm and put on a neighbour's farm and vice versaand cattle being brought from a Teagasc farm and put on his farm, the lack of thrive was clearly demonstrated again on his farm. Why was this ignored? A total of 45 acres of trees and ditches were wiped out and this was confirmed by an Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, report. Again, why was all this evidence not clearly examined? When UCD asked the EPA about the amount of cadmium being emitted from the factory, all the EPA records showed 1 kg per hour. However, the EPA wrote back to UCD and documented that it was only 1 g per hour, which is 1,000 times less. Why?

I have posed a lot of questions. Thankfully, Dan Brennan is now farming very successfully and efficiently on his farm, but he and his family suffered torment while this factory was in operation and those questions need to be answered.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I am sure the Ceann Comhairle will agree that it is not every day a Topical Issue is submitted by people from three different political parties. Three out of the four of us do not come from the constituency of Dan Brennan but I know we have the support of all Members of the Oireachtas from Carlow-Kilkenny, including my colleague Deputy Funchion.

Anybody who has heard Dan Brennan give testimony cannot but believe his story because he not only articulates in a very cohesive and strong manner, he also has evidence to back it up. According to this evidence, he raised issues regarding health, the condition of cattle and issues pertaining to the local environment from as far back as the 1990s, and all those issues were exacerbated from 1997 onwards in direct correlation with increased construction. At that stage, he raised numerous concerns pertaining to the location of his farm adjacent to a brick factory. He raised those issues over many years at every level. At one point, by raising those issues, he was accused of being a bad farmer, something that was disputed not only by him and his family but by his neighbours and every farmer worth his or her salt. Then, lo and behold, the factory ceased production in December 2008 and, almost overnight with a click of the fingers, conditions on the farm started to improve. I am not saying there was a direct link but I am saying that all the evidence points to the fact there was some correlation between those two things because the evidence suggests Dan Brennan was and is an excellent farmer. I am asking the Minister to use his good offices to ensure this man gets the truth and justice he so dearly deserves.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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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.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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It is an extraordinary case. I thank the Minister for being here to deal with it.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail)
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First of all, I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving us extra time. I really appreciate it. When I spoke a few minutes ago, I outlined many unanswered questions. The least we owe to Mr. Brennan is to carry out a review of this case. His veterinary surgeon, Tom Slevin, did 35 post-mortems and 11 showed results he had never seen before. The bones of the animals were soft and could be cut with a knife and new bones were forming in the arteries and kidneys of the animals. He wrote to the Department to request that a pathologist from the UK be invited to review the case. Three pathologists in the UK were sourced but the Department refused to allow it. That alone shows that we need an independent review of what happened here.

Cadmium is a poisonous heavy metal and was found in eave chutes on the farm in 2004 by representatives from Teagasc's Moorepark centre. Dan Brennan was told that his cattle had symptoms of cadmium poisoning. Why was this ignored? When UCD took over the investigation, the Department instructed the university what to test for and omitted cadmium. It was the veterinary surgeon, Jim Crilly, who noted this and who, in 2007, asked for it to be added back onto the testing list. High levels of cadmium were found in the blood. Cattle lost weight and 95% of the symptoms of cadmium poisoning were found. Cows had dental lesions, something caused by fluoride.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Do the other Deputies want to make brief contributions?

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister has ignored everything and he has gone with the line from his Department, a line that has caused nothing but trouble for Dan Brennan. The Irish Farmers' Association and the people of Kilkenny are looking on at this and they believe there was something wrong. If the Minister wants new evidence, he should look at the date the factory closed and at what happened on Dan Brennan's farm then. The Minister is wrong to take that line from the Department, because it is the Department itself that is wrong and it is ignoring what happened. I ask the Minister to go back and read the transcripts of the meeting chaired by Deputy Cahill. The Minister will see clearly the passion of the late Padraig Walshe, for example, who insisted there was something wrong. There is not enough time to deal with this a Cheann Comhairle. I am sorry for that and I appreciate the latitude the Ceann Comhairle has given us.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am more than happy that the Deputies bring back the matter again.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister not to be guided by what he is reading from the Department. I ask him to listen to Dan Brennan for God's sake and take a compassionate view on it.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I join in that appeal. We are and have been members of the Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine and we get dozens of items of correspondence every week and month from people telling us there have been all sorts of injustices and that they were treated badly or whatever. Virtually none of those cases makes it to the floor of the Dáil; the reason this case has is that people across every political party that is represented in this House have heard Dan Brennan's story and have believed what he has said. In every major scandal that has ever affected this State in which it took decades in order to get justice, at some point down the line a Minister read basically the same statement that the Minister has read and had handed to him. I am appealing to the Minister's personal nature because we all know, for all our political differences, he is a good man. The Minister can make a difference to another good man's life that has been put into turmoil as a result of the way he has been treated.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving us this time. Cattle do not go from 200 kg to 400 kg overnight. There is some reason for this. The cattle were pining away and then after a certain length of time they started thriving because a place was closed, to put it simply. You do not have to be a scientist or a vet to know that; it is weights on scales that will tell, and it is obvious when a beast is pining. I appeal to the Minister; for that man, his mental health, his family and what he has gone through. I looked at him in the committee that day. As Deputy Carthy said, we get so many people in but your heart would go out to the man. It is no skin off my nose in County Galway but my God he is a farmer in Ireland who deserves justice.

The last thing I ask the Minister is to get three independent people in from outside the country. The Department should not be allowed to pick them. I ask the Minister to pick them from somewhere and let them do an overview of what has gone on.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputies again for airing their views on this. This is new to me but I have read the evidence and looked back over the file. On what took place, there was the inter-agency group first in June 2004. Following on from that there was the investigation by the Department's veterinary laboratory services and that reported its findings in June 2006.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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It was not it in a hurry to deal with it, was it?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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It is a significantly long time ago now as well. Further to that, University College Dublin, UCD's, centre for veterinary epidemiology and risk analysis completed its report in August 2009. After that, the inter-agency group reviewed the findings of both of those studies and published its conclusions in August 2010. There have been significant investigations and reports done already and the last one goes back over 13 years ago.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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In fairness UCD was not able to search for some stuff. The Minister should have a look at that and read it. It is there in black and white.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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That was over 13 years ago now. I will review the files. It is not that it has not been investigated before, and a lot of time has passed since that.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Make comparison with now and the factory being closed. Make that comparison and look at what is not being included. The Minister cannot walk away from this. He cannot do it.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I will read the file again.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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And the transcripts.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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That comprehensive set of investigations has been done. There has not been any-----

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Look at the terms and conditions for what each one looked at.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I take the point the Deputies are making but there has not been any-----

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Cadmium is the problem. If it cannot be investigated then there is a problem.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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There has not been any new evidence presented subsequent to what would have been available at the time of the investigations. One of those investigations concluded that there was no evidence of fluoride or cadmium toxication levels in the herd-----

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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But there was.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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-----nor any evidence of environmental pollution on the farm. That is what was in the reports. I will take the point of the four Deputies coming together to make the case this evening. I will review and read the files further as well. I have laid out the background to it.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister come back to the House?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The investigations that were here previously-----

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister come back to the House?

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I am happy to discuss it further but I am laying out clearly the background to it, the comprehensive assessment that has gone on in it already and the clear view that there has been no new evidence presented that changes the situation.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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There was. The Minister does not believe what he read out.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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We are not getting into a rigmarole about it. I say to the Deputies to bring the issue back after the Minister has had a chance to review it. We will provide an additional opportunity. We will not be doing this sort of thing again. It is a departure from the norm.