All farmers in the catchment area of the River Douglas, Co Laois, have been inspected in recent weeks, or are to be inspected in the near future, due to concerns over the water quality of the watercourse.

The river, which runs near the Carlow and Kildare borders, has been identified as ‘at risk’ by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to Laois County Council senior executive engineer Rory O’Callaghan.

O’Callaghan said the EPA has identified agriculture as the ‘most significant pressure’ on water quality in the area, and therefore the local authority has a “statutory obligation to carry out inspections of farm holdings”.

The council official said the inspections are to “identify areas where run-off of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediments might be impacting adversely on the water quality in the Douglas catchment”.

He also clarified that the water quality concerns have not arisen due to a single pollution event. O’Callaghan highlighted that the council has provided an information evening on the inspections in association with the local IFA.

However, Laois IFA chair John Fitzpatrick said he feels it is “totally unnecessary that those in agriculture are being targeted first”. “There are other sectors that need visited as well. There’s more than agriculture needed to fix this,” he said.

Fitzpatrick claimed that Laois County Council is looking at having another body conduct the farm inspections. Rather than the Department of Agriculture, the council and now this third party being involved in inspecting farmers, he suggested there should be just one body doing it.

“We’re looking at another body inspecting farmers when there should only be one. Farmers are working off-farm and need to make arrangements for these inspections. It has to work both ways,” he said.

However, the IFA representative noted that no farmers have yet been fined and that the inspections could be looked at as a “education and information exercise”.

The EPA declined the opportunity to comment to the Irish Farmers Journal on the matter.