A brick-making factory in Co Kilkenny which the European Parliament claims is the "probable" cause of animal health problems on a dairy farm has announced it is to close temporarily.
Ormonde Brick Ltd, which is owned by Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), yesterday told its 64 employees the factory in Castlecomer will close on December 21st for five months. The company has vehemently rejected allegations that pollution from the factory is responsible for problems on the farm.
The company said it would "suspend operations. . . in an effort to clear an extensive stock build at the plant" and blamed "a decline in demand for brick products in Ireland".
Negotiations will take place with union shop stewards over the next few weeks. However, the company "plans to recommence production on 5th May, 2008".
A build-up of unsold bricks earlier this year led to a similar two-month closure of the factory. Politicians in Kilkenny have expressed concern about the long-term viability of the plant, which is the main industrial employer in an area blighted by unemployment since the demise of the coal-mining industry.
Earlier this month, the petitions committee of the European Parliament published a report on its investigation into unexplained animal health problems and dying vegetation on a 170-acre farm adjacent to the factory.
Farmer Dan Brennan had petitioned MEPs to investigate stunted growth, low milk yields and high calf mortality among his cattle, which studies by the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had failed to explain.
The report, adopted in Brussels two weeks ago, noted that "since 1990 the cattle on the farm have been victim to a serious disorder which has restricted their growth and their milk production". The petitions committee, which had sent a delegation of MEPs to visit the farm, also observed "dying vegetation" and said "toxic emissions" from the brick factory were "a likely source of contamination".
CRH said the "findings have no scientific basis whatsoever" and that "protracted investigations, studies and scientific tests by the Department of Agriculture found that no link has been established between the ongoing difficulties on the Brennan farm and the operations at Ormonde Brick Ltd".
The European Parliament, which said "this is a matter which deserves to be taken much more seriously than it has been by the Irish authorities until now", sent copies of the report to the Department of Agriculture and the EPA and called for further scientific tests as a matter of urgency.
Kilkenny Senator John Paul Phelan, the Fine Gael Seanad spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, called on the Department of Agriculture to "buck up" and said it had "utterly failed the Brennan family".
But the department strongly rejected the suggestion that it has not taken the matter seriously. A spokesman said yesterday that a major new study into problems at the Brennan farm was being prepared.