The report into animal health problems at Askeaton, Co Limerick, was dismissed as a whitewash yesterday by families in the area.
Mr Liam Somers, who lost 96 cattle from 1989 to 1994, said he was stunned by the report. "I'm put down as a bad farmer in it. I tested my soil roughly every three years through Teagasc and went on their advice, so how can they say I'm a bad farmer? It doesn't make sense," he said.
"I am still blaming air pollution because on particular days we still have emissions like a plume coming from those industries beside us."
Ms Leianne Sheehy, whose family lost cattle and horses, said the report was ridiculous. "There are no conclusions. The only conclusion they are trying to imply, they're not even saying it outright, is that bad farming methods, bad silage and lack of feeding are to blame. They also say we were slow to call in our vets and slow to send dead animals to laboratories. And then at the end of it all they gloss it over and say it's inconclusive."
The Sheehys' problems have not gone away. The latest death occurred on their farm on Tuesday when a pony due to jump at this week's Dublin Horse Show died. "We were devastated to lose her," she said.
"We sent a dead horse to the equine centre last May and in between May and losing this one this week we had ill health in the horses where their skin actually peeled off."
Ms Sheehy believes the deaths were caused by aluminium toxicity. The Department of Agriculture said it would have investigated this claim if the Sheehy family had not refused it entry.
Ms Sheehy said this was misleading. The Department had told them it did not have an equine pathologist and would have the tests carried out by a bovine pathologist. "That was ridiculous and we would not agree to that condition.
"The only thing we can do now I think is go to law. It's not something we like to do but we will have to consider it." Mr Justin Ryan, whose farm was also the subject of the report, branded the document a farce. "They answered nothing. It's like a report that was penned by the industry themselves.
"As far as we are concerned there was no human health survey carried out because there was no actual blood testing of the families involved. We had a youngster with very severe skin problems. There were high levels of aluminium found in our milk and in our cows so that was one thing they could have looked for but they did not blood test anyone in our family and within months of us moving out of the area in January 1996 all our young lad's problems cleared up," he said.
Mr Donagh O'Grady, secretary of the Askeaton/Ballysteen Animal Health Committee, said local farmers were up in arms. "The report states that the problems experienced in Askeaton are normal farm diseases and ignores their exceptional scale and severity."
He also said monitoring of industry during the investigation was minimal compared to the efforts and resources devoted to farm studies.