Council staff ‘intimidated’ at home in EPA probe

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was yesterday accused of “intimidating” Clare County Council staff at their homes into giving witness statements as part of a failed prosecution by the agency.

In a hard-hitting report on the EPA’s investigation of the council allowing water into the Ennis public supply untreated for the Cryptosporidium bug, the council’s law officer John Shaw said that the EPA approach “was, to say the least, high-handed” and “untypical of a state body”.

Last month at Ennis Circuit Court, the council was cleared of any wrongdoing in the case after the DPP, on behalf of the EPA, entered a nolle prosequi in the case.