DEAR SIR: I read with interest Matt Dempsey’s article about Dan Brennan’s farm in Kilkenny.

It is both disheartening and deeply troubling to see the way this man has been treated.

The parallels with the events in Askeaton in the 1990s are all too evident.

The official investigators all too often assume that bad farming practices are to blame and structure their investigation accordingly.

Any evidence suggesting that the problem originates outside the farm is ignored or dismissed.

Of course, the farming practices have to be looked at, but so too do all other obvious potential sources of the problem outside the farm gate.

It’s a bit like ignoring the elephant in the room. An official independent inquiry, as suggested by Matt Dempsey, is the least that Dan Brennan deserves.