Vol. 573 No. 3
238 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the new, repeat and ongoing studies he foresees as being required to determine and address the cause of ongoing human and animal deaths in the vicinity of Alcan Alumina Aughinish, Limerick; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25569/03]
As the Deputy is aware, the reported animal disease problems in the Limerick area were the subject of a multi-agency, multi-euro investigation under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, that was conducted over a number of years. It spanned a range of areas requiring particular specialist expertise, monitoring and analysis, from human health through environmental quality, soil, herbage, feed and water to animal health. Within the context of the overall investigations, each of these areas was addressed by the agency with the competence and expertise relevant to it. For example, the human health issues were addressed by the Mid-Western Health Board and animal health issues by my Department.
The report of this investigation was published in August 2001 and it concluded that inter alia, although a small number of farms experienced notable difficulties, there was no evidence of serious or unusual problems in the wider Askeaton area. In the light of the outcome of this most comprehensive investigation and on the basis of current information available on the animal health situation in the area, I see no basis for revisiting the matter at this stage. In so far as farm animals in any area of the country may fall ill from time to time, there are well-established procedures, involving private veterinary practitioners and, if necessary, the veterinary laboratory service of my Department, for dealing with individual cases.
The farm referred to in the Alloway report was selected as a ‘control' for the 1995 Teagasc investigations of soils, herbage and fodder. This farm was selected on the basis that it was a particularly pure example of the Patrickswell soil series and was also used as a reference to provide information on soil and herbage types and composition on a farm that had not reported multiple animal deaths similar to those occurring on other farms.
The combined agencies' response to the Alloway report did not cast doubt on the use of this farm, rather they simply stated that it was a mistake to use the term "control" as the actual control values used for evaluating the results of the analysis from these farms were based on the national database at the Johnstown Castle analytical services laboratory.
It should be noted that this farm had no role as a "control" in the main animal health studies that extended from 1996 to 1998. The control farm for these studies was the DAF farm at Abbotstown. This farm proved suitable for the purposes of the study.
