Limerick County Council has supported a farming family's call for a public inquiry into the Mid-Western Health Board's loss of blood and tissue samples which formed part of a public health investigation.
Mr Pat Geoghegan and four families in the Askeaton area are at the centre of a six-year, inter-agency investigation into unexplained health problems among people and livestock after concerns were raised about animal deaths in 1988. The tests on the samples were part of the overall "high profile and politically sensitive" investigation, according to the health board's director of public health, Dr Kevin Kelleher, who is conducting the human health aspect of the investigation.
Mr Geoghegan believes the loss of the samples has irreparably compromised the investigation. He is not satisfied with the health board's separate internal inquiry into the loss of the samples.
He has been supported by the Limerick West TD and deputy spokesman on health, Mr Dan Neville. "As far as I am concerned, it casts serious questions over any conclusions on human health," Mr Neville said.
Meanwhile, the final report is expected next month, according to Dr Paul Toner of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is co-ordinating the investigation. The other agencies are the health board, the Department of Agriculture and Teagasc.
"It will consist of a full report from each of the agencies on their own and then there will be a main report with digests of each of those areas, followed by an overall decision and conclusion," he said.
The report of the health board's internal inquiry, published last month, ruled out the possibility that samples went missing because there was a conspiracy at work. The family received an apology from the board's chief executive, Mr Stiofain de Burca.
In particular, the report criticised the role of Mr Jeff De Freitas, consultant pathologist at the regional hospital, saying his administrative practices were unacceptable and that he handled special public health requests on an ad-hoc basis. "It didn't work," the report notes.
Mr De Freitas was also questioned about a letter in which he said that one set of samples, dispatched for analysis, was lost in the post, and another set was discarded in the move to a new laboratory.
"The inquiry group interviewed the pathologist about this letter. He stated that he had no personal knowledge that any samples were discarded or lost during the laboratory moves and that he had merely concluded this since he could not think of any other explanation," the three-man inquiry team, chaired by Dr Sean Conroy, Western Health Board regional manager, stated.
Mr Geoghegan, who has continued to suffer intermittent health problems, has been supported by the Limerick county councillor Mr David Naughton. Mr Naughton spoke on the issue at this week's council meeting before his motion calling for a public inquiry was unanimously passed.
Mr Naughton, also a farmer in the area, said the community had lost faith in the entire investigation. "We have lost faith in the Environmental Protection Agency for a long time but I did not think the health board would turn around and do what it did." Mr Neville questioned the role of Mr De Freitas and said he would be raising the matter in the Dail again.
"There are a lot of unanswered questions in relation to this. First of all, the health board was examining it itself. Has it face credibility? Can you accept the policeman policing himself?" he said.
Mr Geoghegan has continued to question both the health board's role in the investigation of possible pollution by local industries and the failure to return samples for independent analysis.
In the published interim reports, the inter-agency group has found no evidence suggesting a link between cattle deaths and the presence of the Aughinish Alumina bauxite-processing plant and two ESB plants - Moneypoint, a coal-burning plant, and Tarbert, an oil-burning station - which are in the vicinity.
The reports "have totally exonerated Aughinish Alumina, and industry in general, from any connection or association with animal or human health problems in this region," Mr Michael P. Collins, managing director of Aughinish, stated.