Eurolink News

A Irish dairy farmer who claims his livestock have been poisoned for almost twenty years by pollution from a local brick factory says he’s heartened by support received from MEPs in Brussels. Dan Brennan, who farms 170 acres near Castlecomer in County Kilkenny, appeared before a the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee yesterday to explain his case. Backed by veterinary evidence, he claims discharges of toxic cadmium from the Ormonde Brick plant have resulted in stunted growth in his cattle herd, low milk yields, high calf mortality and damaged vegetation on his farm.
‘I’m delighted with the response I got from the MEPs – they believe me, and the EU is going to investigate it further. I don’t trust the Irish authorities and I’ve no problem saying that,’ said Mr Brennan.
It was the second time that the Kilkenny man turned to Brussels for help – his farm was already visited by a delegation of MEPs in 2007 who supported his claim and called for further investigation by the Irish authorities. However a recent 800-page report produced by the Department of Agriculture at a cost €500,000 failed to establish the cause of the problem.
Speaking in Brussels this week, Mr Brennan and a number of scientific experts blasted the government’s report for precluding any connection between the contamination and the brick factory. MEPs expressed shock and anger at the Department’s failure to fully investigate the case, and said the matter could now be put as a resolution before the entire European Parliament. Ireland East MEP Nessa Childers went a step further and called for an independent European Commission investigation into the case. ‘It’s is the only way to reach a definitive conclusion to this long-running saga,’ she said.