The authors of the report into animal health problems at Askeaton, Co Limerick, acknowledged yesterday that the findings of their investigations gave cause for concern to people living in the area.
A director of the Environmental Protection Agency, which led the multi-agency investigation, Dr Padraic Larkin, said some evidence that respiratory deaths were higher in the area had been found. This was a cause for concern.
He urged farmers from the area, who attended a press conference in the South Court Hotel, Limerick, where details of the findings were unveiled, to study the report before coming to conclusions.
The farmers carried placards calling for answers to why there had been 45 cancers and 1,000 cattle deaths in the area.
The report, conducted by the EPA, the Department of Agriculture, Teagasc and the Mid-Western Health Board, found environmental pollution, suspected by farmers as the cause of ill health in their animals and themselves, was unlikely to have caused problems in the area.
However, it went on to say specific causes of their problems couldn't be identified.
Dismissing criticism of the report, Dr Larkin said it would have been easier for them to blame pollution but this was not what their study found. The study had been carried out to a high scientific standard.
"One of the big problems we had was that we were late into the field. We were brought in 1995 and so we were always chasing our tail to some extent," Dr Larkin said, adding that many of the worst problems were over when they became involved.
Dr Paul Collery, of the Department of Agriculture, denied the report was a waste of time. "It is not correct to say we did not find any answers. There are many, many answers in the report in terms of the animal disease problems."
He added that the reference to diseases on the farms, such as mastitis, as being within the normal range was not meant to trivialise the problems suffered by individual farmers.
It was misleading to say the report blamed farmers for whatever problems they experienced, he said. "This question of summarising the report and saying it's been put down to bad farming is completely misleading. The report does not say that and we didn't set out to judge farming. We didn't find evidence that there was an exceptional level of animal health problems in the Askeaton area so the question of saying that Askeaton farmers are not as good as in other areas does not arise."
The disappearance of blood samples given by the Geoghegan family from Askeaton was raised with Dr Kevin Kelleher, a public health specialist with the Mid-Western Health Board. He said human blood samples were never part of the investigation. "I don't think, therefore, they can in any way be taken to have flawed our investigation. They are a separate matter.
"There was never any reason to take blood samples because we never had any identified pollutant or disease by which we could measure them against."
He said the health board investigated the disappearance of the samples and concluded there was no conspiracy. It also apologised to the family.
Dr Kelleher added that the higher mortality rate among 0 to 14-year-olds found in the area, as well as the higher-than-normal rate of deaths among men from respiratory problems, would be kept under constant surveillance by the health board.
Dr Larkin emphasised that emissions from the Aughinish Alumina plant, which locals had claimed contributed to their problems and which is licensed by the EPA, were monitored by the EPA. He said there were problems with the plant, including a significant groundwater problem, but drinking water was not affected.
The company had applied for a review of its licence and it was now open to people in the area to make submissions on the application, he said. Moneypoint and Tarbert ESB power stations had also applied for EPA licences which could not be granted if their emissions caused environmental pollution.