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

Deputy Cahill went on to detail to the Dáil some of what happened on the Brennan farm in the 90s. The farm’s vet “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.”
The deputy said that cadmium is a poisonous heavy metal and was found in eave chutes on the farm in 2004 by representatives from Teagasc.

“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. High levels of cadmium were found in the blood. Cattle lost weight and 95% of the symptoms of cadmium poisoning were found.”

Deputy McGuinness told Minister McConalogue that he “cannot walk away from this.”

In response to the TDs the minister listed reports carried out, said the matter is in the past and they have no new evidence to warrant a new enquiry. “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,” said Deputy McGuinness.

“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,” said Deputy Matt Carthy.

Minister Charlie McConalogue recognised the significance of the four Deputies coming together on the matter, but said: “No credible case has been advanced for reopening the matter at this stage.”

He told the Dáil that expert agencies reviewed the findings of studies and published conclusions in 2010 - that the problems in this herd were multifactorial and common infectious diseases were likely to have accounted for much of the illthrift and poor growth rates. It also concluded there was no evidence of fluoride or cadmium intoxication of the herd or of environmental pollution on the farm.
Minister McConalogue agreed to review and read the files on the case again.