A couple ordered by the High Court last year to clean up their piggery facility or face possible imprisonment have been given another month to comply.
The president of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns, said yesterday the unprecedented amount of rainfall over the past few weeks had made it difficult for Rory and Monica O’Brien to carry out all the work they were required to do at their piggery in Killickane, Mitchelstown, Co Cork.
Farmers had been unable to spread slurry because of the wet weather, the judge was told.
The judge gave the O’Briens until August 14th to comply with the order – made in June 2011 – after noting they had made efforts to comply.
At its peak, the piggery was one of the biggest in the country with more than 30,000 pigs, but it has now been destocked.
The Environmental Protection Agency had applied for orders against the O’Briens after alleging they had failed to empty slurry tanks which leaked into the groundwater system.