Limerick farmers have demanded a "retraction of outrageous statements" made by the Minister for the Marine, Dr Woods, Fisheries Board officials and anglers, blaming the farming community for the recent fish kill on the Mulkear River.
The Mulkear Co-Op, set up to promote the drainage of the Mulkear catchment area, yesterday called on the authorities and anglers "to help us prevent a re-occurrence of this fish kill" by committing their full support for the completion of all three phases of the Mulkear Flood Relief Programme.
The Mulkear Anglers' Association has said it received correspondence from the Mulkear Co-op on Monday, but until its committee had discussed it, it would make no comment.
In a statement, the chairman of the Mulkear Co-op, Mr Martin McCabe, said: "We are outraged that the farmers were blamed almost before the fish were fully dead. They totally ignored the evidence, the time and unaffordable money many farmers put in to do anything possible to prevent any pollution.
"Even when they knew of the natural phenomenon which caused the fish kill and the destruction of thousands of acres of grassland, causing a big reduction in the family farm incomes, the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board and the anglers still blame the farming community.
"These people rely on us farmers in the area for access to the river bank and yet the anglers are now calling on the Minister to halt all drainage work on the Mulkear and Newport areas.
"This is outrageous. What has drainage work in Newport, 10 miles downstream, to do with a fish kill in Pallasgreen?" asked Mr McCabe.
Speaking after a meeting of the Mulkear Co-Op committee to discuss the claims about farmer culpability, the chairman congratulated Limerick County Council for being "big enough to come clean" and explain "the phenomenon" as best it could, and withdrawing the blame levelled at farmers. "The fisheries people don't seem to be man enough to do this and the anglers seem to want a recurrence of this kill."
The farmers repeated their claim that the problem was caused by a natural phenomenon which occurred in the flooded area of the Dead River.
"No farmer had any part to play in the chemical reactions that occurred to produce the lethal liquid," said Mr David Thompson, secretary of the Mulkear Co-Op, and a prominent Irish Farmers' Association member.
The secretary of the Mulkear Anglers' Association, Mr Andy McCallion, yesterday repeated it was basing its findings on scientific analysis done by the Shannon Regional fisheries board and the ESB.