The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture has asked that issues of environmental contamination at Dan Brennan’s farm in Co. Kilkenny be debated in the Dáil and Seanad, according to chair of the committee, Jackie Cahill.
This comes following Brennan’s appearance before the committee in November last year. The committee had a meeting in private after the appearance to discuss the situation.
Issues such as livestock performance and dying trees have been ongoing on Dan Brennan’s farm for over 30 years now, since 1990.
According to Deputy Cahill, at first a unanimous agreement was made by the committee to have an investigation.
The deputy said that due to legal advice “that route was closed off” for them, as they didn’t have the power to perform an investigation.
They then asked the Ceann Comhairle for it to be debated in the Dáil and Seanad, as it was “the only avenue left open to deal with the investigation”, Deputy Cahill told Agriland.
The committee is recommending a “commission of investigation,” Deputy Cahill added.
Brennan’s farm
Throughout the years, Brennan told the committee that his cows were producing between 30% and 40% less than the national average.
His cattle were growing at a rate that was half of the national average and he said the environment on the farm was “severely damaged”. Brennan said his vet at the time had “exhausted all avenues”.
The land was investigated by multiple vets, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Teagasc, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the University College Dublin (UCD) veterinary college.
Ormonde Brick factory, located near Brennan’s farm was not found to have any involvement in the case. However during its closure in 2008 Brennan claims his farm began to recover.
The amount of milk his cows were producing purportedly doubled after the closure.