Carlow County Council agricultural inspectors are set to undertake “additional investigative monitoring” this year.
This is according to a local authority enforcement audit report of Carlow County Council that was conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The report revealed that Carlow County Council stated it is “one of the least staffed councils in the country”.
The retirement of a long serving senior executive engineer was found to have impacted the corporate knowledge of the environment section, along with the current senior engineer moving to the roads section.
However, two new agricultural inspectors have been sanctioned and should be appointed during the year, the EPA revealed.
The report stated that “additional investigative monitoring should be undertaken by agricultural inspectors once appointed later this year”.
Included in the report were details of complaints received by Carlow County Council.
One such complaint was a concern with regard to the impact on livestock of machinery manufacturing plant (spray painting) in Co. Carlow.
However, the report detailed there was a “process change proposed by the operator to be implemented in January 2024 which should resolve the issue”.
Carlow County Council is to assess if proposed process change has been implemented by the operator and whether this has resolved the issue.
The EPA audit also revealed that Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) raised a concern regarding a decline in Q-value (biotic indices reflecting average water quality) at the River Slaney.
The council stated that previous inspections in the area included inspection of a facility did not
reveal any discharge from the site but that the council would investigate this further to
confirm.
The EPA stated that Carlow County Council should undertake an inspection of the River Slaney
within one month of receipt of the audit report, to determine if any discharge to waters is occurring and to appropriately licence any discharges where necessary.