‘Something here is rotten to the core’ - Kilkenny farm 'contamination' raised in Dáil

A Kilkenny farmer has been ‘through hell and back’ in a fight to prove his farm suffered environmental contamination in the 1990s.

Despite numerous reports, and an appeal to the EU, the fight is ongoing. Now TDs from across the country have united in the Dáil to plead with the Minister for Agriculture to hold an independent inquiry into the matter, saying ‘something is rotten to the core’.

Dan Brennan’s farm is located just outside Castlecomer. In the 1990s an industrial operation making bricks was located near his farm. Trees and vegetation died, with 45 acres affected, his cows’ milk yield dropped, the farm saw a high rate of calf mortality and animals failed to thrive.

When the matter was raised in the Dáil, last week, TDs said that when the factory closed, there was an immediate reverse in conditions on the farm. Numerous reports, published in the early 2000s, found nothing amiss on the farm, and Mr Brennan was painted as a ‘bad farmer’. However, other reports showed the presence of cadmium on the farm, a heavy metal that can poison plant and animal life.

Fianna Fáil Deputies John McGuinness and Jackie Cahill (Tipperary) were joined by Independent TD, Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon Galway) and Sinn Féin TD, Matt Carthy (Cavan Monaghan) to raise the case in the Dáil.

“Dan was accused at times of being a bad farmer, when any farmer worth their salt knew this not to be the case,” said Deputy Cahill, who is the Chairperson of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

The Ceann Comhairle permitted extra speaking time to the four TDs to raise their concerns with the Minister for Agriculture and to call for an independent enquiry into the matter.

Dan Brennan “has gone through hell and back with his family,” Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice said. “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.
“There is something going here that is rotten to the core,” said Deputy Fitzmaurice. Click NEXT to continue reading.