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OVER HALF OF local councils queried will need to substantially increase their farm inspections of slurry spreading and management in order to meet targets set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this year.
This investigation by Noteworthy also found that most councils only inspect a tiny proportion of farms in their area, while two councils included on the EPA’s list did not conduct any planned inspections of farms last year.
Fifteen councils will have to more than double their farm inspections in 2024, with the increase required to meet EPA targets in some areas surpassing 600%. Two local authorities will also have to increase their inspections tenfold if they are to reach targets.
We can also reveal that some local authorities are falling far behind in 2024 and will struggle to meet their targets before year end. Several councils that provided partial data to us for 2024 have completed less than 20% of their inspection targets more than halfway through the year.
Slurry is an organic manure made of livestock animal refuse. It is high in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and ammonia – and close to 40 m tonnes of it is spread across almost 90,000 farms in Ireland.
However, while essential to farm productivity, it contributes significantly to ammonia, nitrous oxide and methane emissions, and irresponsible spreading of slurry has led to considerable water pollution and biodiversity loss.
Noteworthy sent Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) requests and press queries relating to the management of farm waste, including slurry and manure, to all local authorities, with the exception of Galway City and Dublin City Council, who weren’t included in the EPA’s targets.
In addition to low inspection levels, Noteworthy found that close to two dozen counties don’t hold key information around fertiliser spreading.
That includes the fact that most councils do not know the number of farmers in their catchment area that spread slurry.
Noteworthy, the crowdfunded community-led investigative platform from The Journal, supports independent and impactful public interest journalism.
The EPA told Noteworthy that “agriculture is the primary source of nitrate losses to water and contributes a significant proportion of phosphate losses”.
The European Union, to mitigate the effects of agriculture on water quality, introduced the Nitrates Directive in 1991 which regulates the storage and spreading of slurry. The regulation also mandates how and when this liquid manure can be spread and managed.
The Directive led to the establishment of good agricultural practices (GAP), a set of regulations that provide a “basic set of measures to ensure the protection of waters”.
In Ireland, these regulations are monitored and enforced by local councils, Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), the EPA and the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM).
The EPA assessed how councils performed inspections in 2022 and found that only four county councils, Carlow, Meath, Fingal and Kildare, achieved the standard set by the National Enforcement Priorities (NEP).
“More local authority farm inspections and follow-up enforcement is needed to reduce the impact of agricultural activities on water quality,” the agency stated in a report released late last year.
It told Noteworthy, “while the number of local authority farm inspections increased during 2022, the number was still too low”. In 2022, only 943 initial inspections were conducted by local authorities.
Data obtained from local authorities showed that over 2,700 farm inspections took place in 2023, though this figure also includes follow-up inspections and investigations undertaken off the back of complaints so the number of initial, or planned, inspections was lower.
Roughly half of these inspections were also carried out by just two councils, Cork County (932 inspections) and Limerick (404 inspections), meaning that there were low inspection rates across many local authorities.
For example, just eight inspections were carried out in Offaly last year, while in Carlow there were just 14. Both counties have been set targets of over 100 inspections by the EPA this year.
Two county councils, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and Waterford, did not undertake any planned inspections of farms in 2023, with the latter telling Noteworthy it “had no dedicated resource to carry out farm inspections prior to 2024. Inspections were carried out following complaints depending on staff availability.”
This year, the EPA requires Waterford to carry out 136 inspections, while Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown will only have to conduct 27 inspections, due to its largely urban environment.
Our investigations also found that only a few councils inspected compliance with the Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) scheme last year. This scheme provides grantees aid to purchase modern, less polluting machinery to spread liquid manure.
We also asked all local authorities, except the three city councils, for statistics on farms that spread slurry.
20 out of the 28 councils we reached out to told us that they did not know the number of farms within their area that fell under the Nitrates Directive derogation.
The data, they said, is held by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine (DAFM).
When asked by Noteworthy for this information, a spokesperson for DAFM said that across Ireland in 2022, “6,393 farmers were approved for a Nitrates Derogation” and that data for 2023 was “not yet fully finalised”.
They added that the number of farmers in a county “are not essential pieces of data that would be required in advance in order to properly conduct an on-farm inspection. Local Authority and DAFM inspectors make their assessment of compliance when they go out on inspection.”
Our investigation also found that for many councils, only farms that are found to have committed a serious breach in compliance are cross-reported to DAFM.
When this occurs, financial penalties can be imposed, or farmers may lose their nitrate derogation and be ineligible to apply in subsequent years.
Data provided to Noteworthy from several councils showed that some cross-reported all of the non-compliances to the DAFM, while other councils cross-reported as little as less than 10% of non-compliant farms.
From this, it was not clear what level of breaches were being cross-reported by each council.
When we asked DAFM if there was a standardised system to record the scale of non-compliance on farms, a spokesperson said “the Department has in place a comprehensive set of inspection procedure manuals.”
They also added that local authority inspectors are provided with training “ensuring that all Inspectors are kept up to date with the latest procedures and requirements under the GAP Regulations.”
Dr Elaine McGoff, head of advocacy with An Taisce said these regulations are not strong enough.
“The Good Agricultural Practice regulations are not fit for purpose. Even if they were properly enforced, they’re still not going to achieve what needs to be achieved.”
McGoff said that the regulations address phosphorus pollution, doing little for nitrogen.
“Ireland has a nitrogen problem with a phosphorus solution,” she added.
However, Teagasc research officer Shaun Connolly, who specialises in manure management, said that the GAP works “relatively well”.
“It strikes a good balance between reducing emissions, reducing water quality issues, but also getting the results that farmers want as well.”
For the first time, the EPA has set local authority targets for initial farm inspections.
These targets are decided on a “risk-based methodology and ensures that inspections are focussed in water bodies that are not achieving their Water Framework Directive status and where agriculture is the significant pressure,” a spokesperson said.
The Government’s recent Water Action Plan 2024 states “agriculture is the most common significant pressure impacting 1,023 water bodies” and proposes these new inspection targets as a measure to improve water quality.
The EPA told Noteworthy that its rollout of the National Agricultural Inspection Programme “will increase the number of inspections carried out, with the 2025 target representing more than a four-fold increase from the number of farms inspected in 2022″.
However, these new targets still amount to less than 4% of the total farms reported to use slurry in 2024 and increase to just over 5% in 2025.
Some argue that this is not enough.
Sinéad O’Brien, a co-ordinator with the Sustainable Water Network (SWAN) – an umbrella organisation of twenty-five national and local environmental groups – said “even if they take a risk-based approach to the inspections, at such a paltry inspection rate they’re just not going to inspect the number of farms that need to be”.
Furthermore, just six councils surpassed or met their 2024 targets in 2023, meaning most local authorities will have to see vast improvements in the number of farm inspections this year if they are to meet the targets set.
Westmeath and Offaly will have to increase their farm inspections by 1,750% (from 2 to 37) and 1,238% (from 8 to 107) respectively in order to meet the targets set by the EPA.
Both Carlow and South Dublin County Council will also have to inspect over 600% more farms this year.
The sharp rise in the number of inspections required is partly due to the lack of staffing resources available to councils to conduct inspections before this year.
In 2022, the County and City Management Association (CCMA) undertook a review of local authority resources available for agricultural inspections and found that just 11 full-time equivalent (FTEs) inspectors were available nationally.
The report recommended that 57 additional inspectors needed to be recruited to undertake the 4,500 farm inspection target set by the EPA.
In response to a query from Noteworthy, the Department of Local Government said it had “allocated funding for 21 Local Authority staff in 2023 and a further 36 staff in 2024, to work specifically on the National Agricultural Inspection Programme”.
“It is now the responsibility of each Local Authority to ensure the resources are in place to ensure that the EPA targets are being met,” a spokesperson added.
While local authorities are hiring more support dedicated to conducting farm inspections, data provided to Noteworthy of farm inspections so far this year show that some councils are falling far behind and will struggle to meet their targets before the end of the year.
Several councils that provided partial data to us for 2024 have completed less than 20% of their inspection targets more than halfway through the year.
This includes Westmeath County Council, who required the largest increase over 2023 and has yet to inspect any farms so far this year.
A spokesperson told Noteworthy this was “due to a lack of resources” and that “preparations are underway to complete our target of 37 inspections by the end of 2024″.
Leitrim County Council are also lagging behind, with just 4 of their 46 inspections completed so far.
A spokesperson for the council said there are “a number of vacant posts in our Environment Department” adding “a full internal review of the overall inspection schedule of the Environment Department and targets will take place in the coming weeks, with a view to meeting the set targets by year-end”.
They also said the vacant posts will be filled “in the coming weeks” and on the appointment of these additional staff resources “inspection numbers will increase significantly from current levels”.
When asked whether the EPA was concerned that local authorities will fail to meet their inspection targets for this year, a spokesperson said “it would be premature for the EPA to comment at this stage”, adding that the recruitment process for local authority inspectors was still ongoing.
The EPA also did not respond to a query relating to consequences for non-compliance with the targets, such as fines or sanctions.
Some, however, believe that inspections might not be the right solution.
Maurice Deasy, a Teagasc researcher and farmer said “I’m a farmer, and the amount of inspections and red tape and hassle is unbelievable,” adding: “I don’t know what benefit it would have for water quality.”
He said constant water quality monitoring is a better solution, “rather than just inspecting and causing time and hassle for farmers and for councils and cost”.
Deasy said that slurry is not the issue. The issue is how it is being spread.
“It’s not the cow, it’s the how,” he said.
“I think if we were to monitor the water, we could have a much better and more progressive discussion with farmers about when exactly we should use this manure.”
However, ecologist and environmental campaigner Pádraic Fogarty said that the volume of slurry in Ireland is cause for concern.
“The climate is changing much faster than our policies,” he said.
According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ireland has over 7.3 m cows, 5.9 m sheep and 1.6 m pigs. While Teagasc lists that Ireland has over 70 m chickens.
This, Fogarty said, is the issue.
“That is a constant stream of waste that the lands just can’t cope with. It’s just too much… The overriding problem is the number of farm animals.”
He also said that Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) farming is worse for water “because it’s putting more slurry straight into the ground”.
“It’s very good for reducing the emissions of ammonia gas. But it’s worse for water quality,” he added.
O’Brien added that increased enforcement, while welcomed by SWAN, does not address the core issue.
She argued that some areas, such as the Boyne, the Barrow and the Blackwater require such a reduction in nutrients that even with “all the enforcement officers in the world doing all of the farm inspections with all of the farmers coming out squeaky clean, that reduction would not be achieved”.
Instead, dairy farmers should be supported to de-intensify, O’Brien said and environmental risk assessments to be undertaken on all intensive farms with “intensification only permitted if it can be demonstrated that it won’t impact water quality”.
Recent data shows that water bodies including the Cork Harbour, New Ross Port in Wexford and the Boyne Estuary in Louth have shown an increase in phosphate levels.
In response to a query by Noteworthy, Inland Fisheries Ireland shared data which showed that since 2020, thousands of fish deaths could be directly or partially linked to “discharge or effluent arising from agricultural activities”.
Grassroots community-led groups are trying to help mitigate water pollution in their areas.
The Boyne River Trust is a not-for-profit organisation based in Meath. Muireann Lyons, a part-time development officer with the group said that the Boyne’s “water quality has declined in recent years, rather than improved”.
A recent report from the EPA shows that 34% of the river and 10% of the groundwater from the Boyne catchment is ‘poor’ quality. Agriculture was listed as one of the reasons for this.
The Trust is working along with farmers in the area to address issues. “We’re at the talking stages with local farmers. There’s a lot of interest there,” Lyons said.
“We’re talking with farmers about things like fencing off their land so that the cattle aren’t encroaching on waters, installing some fencing around ponds or wetland areas to maximise water replenishment… [checking ] their irrigation systems are fit for purpose.”
More resources for farm inspections are being allocated. Many councils that shared information with Noteworthy said that the number of farm inspectors employed has increased in the last four years.
Noteworthy reached out to the Department of Local Government to understand why it had taken until 2024 for vital resources to be put in place for farm inspections.
A spokesperson for the department told us a local authority inspection programme was in place for years, but over the course of the Covid period, inspection numbers decreased.
Following this, they added, the “EPA was given an oversight role and the current National Agricultural Inspection Programme was established”.
What toll is slurry spreading taking on our health and nature?
By Conor O’Carroll & Suhasini Srinivasaragavan of Noteworthy
Noteworthy is the crowdfunded investigative journalism platform from The Journal. This project was proposed and funded by our readers.
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Uncontrolled immigration , Children’s Hospital , Housing , Scoliosis , Hospital waiting lists , Homeless , Neutrality in danger , Vulture Funds , Crime , RTE Bailout , Bike Shed and on and on . That’s the list of FF FG GP “achievements” over the term of this government . So tell me Simon and Micheal and Roderick , if re-elected what if anything will you do differently next time ?
@Jim Ryan: difference? I suppose their wages is going up again.
@Jim Ryan: nothing like trump,will waste another 5 years.
@Jim Ryan: The cake is a certain size. Bickering over the size of slices is ongoing. At least FF and FG are making the cake bigger not driving enterprises out of existence because of a Marxist illusion.
@Colette Byrne: 4 years you uneducated dope
@Jim Ryan: Our Neutrality? Our Constitution says that our armed forces cannot go into action without authority from the Oireachtas. That’s it. There is NO mention of neutrality. Our neutrality is a ‘custom’, not any legally ir constitutionally binding decision m
@thomas molloy: I’m no Marxist . We have a housing crisis and can’t/won’t house our own Irish people but it’s no trouble to our Government to house 200,000 Ukrainians . We can build modular houses for them . But Irish people don’t get a look-in when it comes to housing with this Government . Then we have asylum seekers here who should NEVER have been allowed into Ireland . We have Irish politicians smugly speaking about “Ireland’s International Obligations” to accommodate refugees and asylum seekers , but you won’t hear a word out of those same politicians on their Obligations to us the Irish people .
@Jim Ryan: Vote for Islamo SF. Your immigration will be even better.
@Jim Ryan: Bla-bla-bla. Professional moaner.
@Jim Ryan: Apart from housing, none of those things effect the majority of Irish people but agreed they do nothing
@K O: typo doesn’t make me a dope, you mo£on.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: This is correct. What you omit is that the majority of Irish people, time and again, have shown that they support neutrality. It is a constitutional imperative that the will of the people be respected, IMHO
@Colette Byrne: But it’s not just a typo, is it?
@Darth O’Leary: Fine, as long as it’s not done like Brexit. Vote first, then decide what it means. The full, clear and definitive meaning of ‘neutral’, in the Irish context, must be clear FIRST. Personally, the present article is fine by me.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: A vote would be fantastic but it’s not welcome by FFG because they know the answer they’d get
First we will be told lies and then broken promises otherwise same as usual
@pauley870: You are very hard on the media. It’s early days to know who they will support.
@thomas molloy: You’re obsessed with the media.. I’d say take a break from it lad. Both main stream and Social.. judging by the drivel you post, it’s not serving you very well.. go hit a sliotar up a mountain for yourself.
@Brian: We all should be focusing on the media as it is most voters source of information/bias. Eg if the media had fact checked Boris Johnson’s claims Brexit would not have happened.
@thomas molloy: Listen, plenty of ‘media’ fact checked BJs bullsht during the campaign.. if people reading the sun and other such rags want that to be their only source of information.. thats on them.. the information and facts are out there across all media platforms, and whilst it’s getting harder to access it some regards.. with all the other bs around it..this incessant banging of your anti media drum is tiresome.. I mean to say where are you getting all your unbiased 100 per cent factual news from.. please enlighten me. ?
We can expect lots of false smiles, unwanted knocks on the door and promises that will undoubtedly be broken. What else would you expect coming up to an election?
I expect the Polls to be wrong, again.
@Jack Cass: wishful thinking unfortunately
@Nigel Hayden: No way, the entire planet is turning away from treasonous leftists.
@Jack Cass: I’d say your dreaming nailed on sf won’t lead any government
we can expect a lot of lies, false promises and very woke oriented bulls…
I know who I’ll be voting for. I imagine most of us do. Can we just skip to the voting bit?
@honey badger: tell me who? I really don’t know who to vote for apart from not the current ones.
@Basildon Joe: Vote for whoever you want. Just make sure you do vote.
@honey badger: answer my question please I need guidance
@Basildon Joe: Should I cut the crusts off your sandwiches, too?
@honey badger: please help me yes.
@honey badger: a lot of undecideds out there, apparently..
@Basildon Joe: Vote nationalist
@FlipBip: What does that mean?
@Basildon Joe: Labour, Greens, and Social Democrats. Between them they are running more than enough candidates to form a government, if enough people vote for them
@lesidees: a nice thought, but highly unlikely!
@lesidees: maybe I’ll go labour or are they too woke?
@lesidees: Ah Greens tho. Regardless of how much ‘climate’ triggers people, incompetence should never be rewarded.
@lesidees: Labour and Greens sold their souls to get a pop at ministerial pensions. large protest coming their way again this time as a result. Labour are in terminal decline and might only have AK-47 in the house next time. Greens can probably depend on some under 40s who care about the planet but popularity is for the policy more than the party ( their result is probably the most unpredictable of all parties because they could potentially transfer all over the place and do relatively well)
Register. Decide. VOTE!! Bad governments are a result of good people not voting. REGISTER! DECIDE!VOTE!
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Bit of a sweeping one. Not sure you could successfully argue that but anyway. Who to vote for! OR who to vote against? Regardless nothing will be built here for decades. Any party committing to building infrastructure might get a look, any language about giving out fivers or forming governments with the current Green party will be a massive negative.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: bad governments are a result of people not voting?. Not true. No matter how many people vote in this country we’ll still end up with the same bad government. Simply because there isn’t an alternative.
@Ger Whelan: subjective viewpoint this Government got a lot right no angels but no alternative as they choose to defend kiddy fiddlers
Ireland has emerged as one of the most expensive countries in the European Union for goods and services. Heard on radio this morning already knew tough. More same or will something be done to help iris people . Even when can travel is more expensive for flights and parking everything a rip off here
Look after the pension who paid tax a prsi sice the we’re 16yea old
@martin finnegan: Martin, the median salary in Ireland is twice as much as most of the rest of the EU. The prices are aligned with people means. It’s basic economic you missed in school.
@Alex: Ye but the prices are nearly 3 times with other European countries
@martin finnegan: it is also one of the countries with the highest salaries and highest minimum wage.
@Alex: Explain then, why the price of a litre of milk is the same in a shop in Dublin and Clare.. yet there is 10k in the difference between the median salary in both counties.. and that’s not even taking into account low income earners, minimum wage earners and unemplyed/disabled/OAPs.. whose means are prices aligned with..? or do you even have a clue what you’re talking about..???
@Brian: don’t bother him with facts. Can’t you see he’s happier without them
@Darth O’Leary: Indeed.. glad I wasn’t subjected to the economics classes he was in school.
Loads of pretty posters and lies incoming!!
Journal could you put up a Gravy train tracker like the Santa tracker at Christmas.
No shinner vote
@Lefty Cries: why don’t you go outside & shout at the lads putting up sf posters instead of your relentless toxic bleating on here? Set your phone to measure your time spent on comments while you’re at it. All of your accounts that is.
Will FF & FG have enough of the sweet cake to “go it alone”????
@Frank Mc Carthy: hopefully
Even the journal can’t distinguish between both party’s, it was michael who told us, was that not the news of the day yesterday. Please keep up journal.
we need to vote Sinn Fein for a more equal and diverse ireland
@Billy Eyelash: Not if you want your kids safe you don’t.
@Billy Eyelash: Shalom
@Billy Eyelash: freedom for kiddy fiddlers
Empty Promises & Lies, we seem to fall for the lies as a Nation, every time. Some of these people are pathological liars.
Not to be the bearer of good news but even if FG isn’t perfect (far from it). Ireland went from 3rd world country with nothing going for it to one of the wealthiest country in Europe with taxes surplus every year. Moan as much as you can but that’s a fact.
@Alex: Just look at the state of France or the UK our next African neighbours. Social policies have its limits. In France not even 50% of people pay taxes to subsidise the other lazy 50%. No one wants that. Only invalid and elderly should get any help.
@Alex: Then stop sending millions of euros to sh!thole who never use the funds as they are supposed to be.
No votes for Mary Muslim Lou and her pedo party
Only thing I expect is a lot of broken promises.
We can expect three weeks of unmitigated b/s and lies!
Did you notice that the only person not smiling is Rodders, I wonder why
Nothing new thats for sure
Just like in US the public in Ireland are more intelligent than the world is flat Marxist incapables who want everyone negative about progress.
It is very simple what people will hear for the next 3 weeks. Lies, lies and more lies from a bunch of absolute liars.
@Gerry Lamont: All 550+ of them are liars?
I think we can expect BS piled on top of BS and all done with a straight face and genuine fake sincerity! Business as usual, really…
Handy link here to all the constituencies, incumbents, who is running, etc.
RTE news : General Election Constituency Profiles
http://www.rte.ie/news/election-24/profiles/#/general-election-constituency-profiles/
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Thanks for sharing. RTE provide predictions in each constituency based on “analysis”
This is very speculative and littered with unsubstantiated presuppositions. This is not the job of the national broadcaster imo. Nowhere, AFAIK, in the link does it disclose the source of this “analysis”
We can expect nothing. All proceeds go to Brussels.
Same old, same old. SSDD.
The Socialists in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil arguing with the Socialists in Sinn Fein as to who can put forward more radical left-wing policies and who can spend more of our hard-earned money which they steal from us through taxation. You’re screwed up the creek without a paddle no matter which of the major parties that you vote for. Smaller parties like Labour and PBP are just as bad when it comes to being left-wing. There is a hegemony of opinion in Dáil Éireann and it is cancerous for the Irish people.
FG for the win!
I wish terrible things upon them.
Whoa… so many to choose from in my new exciting election… well, you all look so tempting but no point in wasting my vote, so…. I’m gonna go with The People’s Judian Front. Final answer.
have your say