KERRY County Council was fined £500 for sewage pollution, with £438 costs and £350 expenses at Tralee District Court yesterday.
A solicitor for the South Western Regional Fisheries Board said an environmental officer had found sewage pollution at Buncurrig on August 16th. It showed that Ballyheigue's sewage treatment works were overloaded, resulting in some of the plant's output being untreated.
The council has banned development in the Ballyheigue area because of the growth in population there.
Mr John Daly, law agent for the council, told the court the treatment plant dated from 1960 and the council is to provide a new plant. "It's a question of dosing the door after the horse bolted," Judge Terence Finn remarked, imposing the penalty on the council.