Call for probe into loss of blood samples
Some 20 blood, hair and urine samples were handed over to the Mid Western Health Board (MWHB) by the Geoghegan family over an 18-month period between 1997 and 1998. The Askeaton family was concerned about the effects of industrial pollution in the area.
In a population of 800, there are 64 recorded cancer cases. There have been 39 cancer-related deaths. Over a 10-year period, hundreds of farm animals have also died mysteriously.
However, the samples were mislaid. After carrying out an internal inquiry last year, the board said the samples were lost due to a combination of "system and human error" but insisted there was no conspiracy.
However, documents released to the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show doctors within the MWHB were informed the missing samples were tested and results had been returned.
No results were ever made public and there is no record of the tests at the State Laboratory.
The documents also show the test results should have been included in a 5.32 million EPA-led environmental investigation in the area, but the MWHB later denied this.
In light of the new information, Mr Sargent said serious questions must be addressed.
"This shows there is either breathtaking incompetence, which should result in people losing their jobs, or else there's something sinister at work," he said.
"The entire affair is crying out for a new inquiry and what the families in Askeaton have been made to endure is inhuman."
The health board refused to comment on the issue.
The Geoghegan family meets opposition parties today in an effort to pressurise the Government to establish an inquiry.
Pat Geoghegan said the family has always maintained the samples went missing while in the health board's possession and only a full inquiry would get to the bottom of the affair.
"These papers show that there are still unanswered questions. The only way we will get the truth is with a full State inquiry," he said.
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