Mysterious deaths - Askeaton can’t trust EPA report

HARD questions hang over a State-led investigation into hundreds of unexplained animal deaths and mysterious human illnesses in Co Limerick.

An independent report, claiming industrial pollution could be partly responsible, warrants serious consideration.

Prepared for the IFA, it challenges the inconclusive €5 million investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which failed to identify definite reasons for animal health problems in Askeaton.

The latest finding confirms the worst fears of local people convinced industry is to blame for their problems. It comes hot on the heels of an Irish Examiner revelation, secured under the Freedom of Information Act, that vital medical samples from the area vanished under circumstances yet to be explained. According to medical opinion, the samples could explain chronic illness among members of a family at the centre of this controversy.

Clearly, local farmers no longer trust the EPA which has ruled out pollution and blamed farming practices as the likely causes of animal deaths around Askeaton.

On foot of claims by a consultant that industrial pollution cannot be ruled out, there is a compelling case for revisiting this mystery.