Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The council is conducting farm-by-farm inspections in the Castletown-Kinneigh and Coppeen area. Farmers who are well familiar with Department of agriculture, Bord Bia and a myriad of different inspections are finding these county council inspections are far more intense and are being conducted on every farm, even though the expectation was only 5% would be inspected. Even a one-cow farm is being inspected. The inspections are being driven by water quality. Where pollution is identified and noncompliance, there are penalties and immediate action is expected to be taken. It is reasonable enough that immediate action would be taken if there is pollution, but further along the very same riverbank, Dunmanway wastewater treatment plant is polluting the same water body. "Prime Time" conducted a programme on this recently and it is very frustrating for farmers who find they are not being treated equally. Why are all farms in the area being inspected one after the other and are all polluters, including Irish Water, going to be expected to take immediate action and upgrade?

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