Calls for fresh investigation into impact of emissions at factory in Kilkenny

A report from the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine has called for a ‘Commission of Investigation’ to assess the environmental impact of local industrial emissions in Castlecomer.

The report comes following a public meeting, held by the Committee in November 2022 on the topic: ‘Environmental Impact of Local Emissions’.

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The report states that during this meeting, the Committee heard evidence from a local farmer and other witnesses about the poor condition and growth of cattle on his farm during the period of operation of a nearby factory.

The report states that the Committee ‘subsequently wrote to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine and the company associated with the factory, offering them the opportunity to respond to what had been said’.

The report claims that ‘all those parties, in effect, all took the position that the issues had been satisfactorily investigated by an Inter Agency Group, including the EPA, which had reported in 2010’.

The report continued, “The Inter Agency Group had reported that it had not found evidence to indicate that environmental pollution caused ill thrift and poor growth rates in animals on the farm and had suggested that the problems in the herd were multifactorial in source and that common infectious diseases were likely to have been responsible.”

Despite this, the Committee claims in their report to have ‘heard extensive criticism of the methods and practices used by the investigating bodies’ during the hearing in November 2022.

As a result, the Committee therefore ‘does not consider that the issues have been satisfactorily investigated to date’ and they have decided to ‘recommend that the Government establish a Commission of Investigation under Section 3 of the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 to inquire fully into these matters’.