asked the Minister for Health if his Department have undertaken any inquiries to establish whether the factors leading to the deaths of animals on a farm in Ballydine, County Tipperary, constitute a threat to the health of people living in the area; the outcome of any such inquiries; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Tipperary Animal Deaths.
3.
At the instigation of my Department the South Eastern Health Board are at present undertaking an epidemiological study of disease patterns in the area.
A retrospective examination of disease patterns in the area over the past two years has not indicated anything unusual.
Will the Minister tell the House if the Cabinet sub-committee established last March, and consisting of the Ministers for Labour, Agriculture, Health, Industry and Energy and Environment, have met and reported to the Government?
It is correct that such a committee was established, representing the Departments of Agriculture, Health, Environment, Industry and Energy and Labour, to co-ordinate inquiries into any question of a link being established between the operations of the Merck, Sharp & Dohme factory and the particular problems associated with the farm in the area. The most useful aspect of this has been the recent co-operation whereby a number of animals were put down and are being currently investigated by way of extensive laboratory tests. That is being done by both the Department of Agriculture and the farmer concerned on a carefully controlled basis. On that basis the findings should be available quite soon to enable us to come to a definite understanding as to what precisely is wrong, if there is anything wrong, in that area.
As it is the Minister for Health to whom we are addressing the question I think he will agree that his responsibility is to the people living in the area. The responses he has been giving are matters for the Minister for Agriculture or perhaps the Minister for Labour. But the specific question I put down was to ask the Minister if there was any threat, to his knowledge, to the lives or health of people in the area or if he had conducted any tests to discover, apart from the epidemiological patterns to which the Minister has referred, if there is any danger to the health of human beings in the area?
I might reassure the Deputy that I have devoted a very considerable amount of time to this issue in this area. The deputy medical officer of the Department of Health and the local medical officers of the South Eastern Health Board have also devoted a very considerable amount of time to this matter. It is being discussed extensively and intensively at departmental level, with my Department directly involved. So far, after widespread investigation and very considerable study of disease patterns in the area, we have been unable to come to a conclusion with regard to the particular plant concerned. Of late, we have had perhaps the most definite prospective investigation open to us, namely, the laboratory tests on the cattle on this particular farm. That will be of major value to us, to the farmer concerned, to the health board and to the Departments of Health and Agriculture.
Might I have a "yes" or "no" answer. Do I take it that the Minister is saying that he is not yet satisfied that there is no hazard to health in the area?
Despite the most intensive investigation I would make the assertion that nothing has emerged so far from the tests that would suggest the existence of a public health problem. I can assure the Deputy that if I have the slightest indication of such I will take immediate action, as indeed will the Government, as the matter has been discussed extensively at Government level as well.