A farmer created an environmental hazard with up to 4m gallons of slurry and rainwater sitting in a disused piggery, Longford District Court was told.

Donal Connaughton of Newtowncashel, Co Longford, has admitted charges relating to the seepage of slurry into nearby watercourses. The court was told 25 slurry tanks on the farm, many of them exposed to rainfall, contained slurry.

Judge Seamus Hughes called for a taskforce to deal with the environmental threat the slurry poses.

He suggested the Department of the Environment, the EPA and the farm organisations will all have to be involved. The closed period for slurry spreading began on 15 October, so dispensation would be needed to landspread between now and mid-January.

Connaughton has previously been in the news for an altercation with repossession agents that saw him convicted of false imprisonment, threatening to cause serious harm, assault and criminal damage, for which he served a custodial sentence.

The current case has been adjourned until November.