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Investigatesfactory farmJUST LIKE ANY other ordinary day out on the farm gearing up for the busy 2021 spring tillage season, John* received a call about animal manure – a rich, natural fertiliser used across the island to help boost crop yield. This call was different, however – “one of those phone calls you don’t expect”.
The call came from an old college pal, now working in the agri-research body Teagasc, who told him that he came across John’s name on a contract to take litter from a farmer applying for planning permission for a poultry farm in Northern Ireland.
“Looking at the document and looking at the signature, he knew, just by the quality of the signature, it wasn’t my signature,” John told us.
This call was soon followed by a Teagasc letter in March 2021 informing him of “question marks” over the letter’s validity, as well as that of a Teagasc letter claimed to have been sent on his behalf stating his farm had capacity to import and spread litter.
These Teagasc letters and litter contacts are vital files submitted as part of planning applications for poultry farms in Northern Ireland, without which applicants face the risk of being refused permission as the industry continues to expand and searches for an outlet for the large volumes of litter produced.
“I was quite incredulous that somebody could use my name and use the land of this farm to justify getting planning permission,” John said.
John is not alone, however, and was just one of 15 farmers in the Republic of Ireland that Teagasc contacted in early 2021 about the use of their details in suspected falsified or altered records submitted as part of planning applications for poultry farms in the North.
As part of our FACTORY FARM investigation with The Detail and The Guardian, we took a deep dive into the regulation of the all-island poultry litter trade.
We analysed planning and enforcement files, spoke with environmental scientists, planning experts and environmental groups, and sent over 75 access to information requests to chart serious issues raised. Our findings reveal:
In part two of this investigation we examine the direct impact of farms in the border region on protected nature areas, and concerns over wider environmental impacts of the industry. This article was developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu.
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A “farming and industrial success story”. This is how the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) described the Irish poultry industry in a letter to the Minister for Agriculture last February bringing his attention to a new report on the burgeoning economic role of the sector.
The University College Cork report - commissioned by the IFA’s Poultry Working Group – said that the industry today supports over 5,000 jobs – 3,500 in the border region – with a value of €611 million.
This is not surprising as poultry is our most consumed meat, with over 110 million birds processed for meat and 900 million eggs produced annually. According to the latest Census of Agriculture – we had close to 16.5 million poultry in 2020 – a 50% increase in just a decade.
According to the Central Statistics Office, the poultry population “has never been as large” as it is today, with almost three-quarters of the birds concentrated in the border region in Monaghan and Cavan.
The situation is the same just across the border, with significant expansion over the past decade in Northern Ireland largely driven by State policy. The poultry giant Moy Park, for example, outlined ambitious expansion plans in the early 2010s and, by 2015, it alone was processing five million chickens per week – up 60% from just six years earlier.
Moy Park said that it is a “responsible business” and that all expansion plans are subject to “highly regulated” environmental modelling. “No decision,” it said, “is taken without the appropriate full planning permission” and relevant licensing approval.
Today, there are almost 24.5 millions birds on farms in Northern Ireland, a near doubling in two decades. The rapid growth in farms and bird numbers, however, has created a problem – the sheer volume of litter produced and the ammonia emissions that come with it.
Poultry manure is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and is a powerful fertiliser, used for compost in the mushroom industry and landspreading on tillage and vegetable farms to encourage crop growth.
However, there is a downside to the production of such quantities of litter that can cause environmental and human health risks, such as water, air and soil pollution, spread of antimicrobial residues, and respiratory issues.
This is because animal waste produces an air pollutant called ammonia, 99% of which is linked to agriculture, and already at dangerously high levels on our island.
Our analysis of planning documents for farms in the North show a large percentage are within a short distance of protected nature areas, many of which have high levels of ammonia, impacting on flora and fauna protected under EU law.
In order to obtain planning permission, applicants must provide evidence they can safely dispose of, or store, manure produced by their farm. Much like in the South, however, most farms do not have the capacity to store the quantity of litter produced as farms expand.
The inability to handle litter is a problem that authorities in the North have been aware of for at least a decade, with the scientific advisor in the Agriculture Department (DAERA) telling the Agriculture Committee in May 2012 that the “key issue” for the poultry sector was litter.
At the time, 260,000 tonnes were produced every year, yet farms only had the capacity to sustainably manage 100,000 tonnes. “We are therefore left to find a home or an alternative use for 160,000 tonnes of poultry litter,” he said, with export now a vital component of the industry.
Records released by the Department of Agriculture (DAFM) show that over 280,000 tonnes of poultry litter was imported from Northern Ireland since 2017, with almost 65,000 tonnes imported last year.
Official records of shipments held by DAERA – released to The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and shared with our team – show litter was sent to farms for landspreading, to a biogas plant, and to mushroom composting facilities.
In the vast majority of confirmed exports with official records in 2021, the litter was sent from farms contracted to the powerhouse Moy Park that posted after-tax profits of almost £67 million (€74m) in 2020.
In planning applications, farms linked to Moy Park need to provide confirmation that their litter will be accounted for under the processor’s litter production limits agreed with authorities in the North.
When contacted by our team, Moy Park said that it was not aware of the falsification or altering of letters as an issue in the industry or indeed with its contracted farmers. There is nothing in our investigative findings that indicates Moy Park or any of its providers are linked to any cases where falsification or altering of litter contracts have been identified.
Other farms not linked to the processor must provide a litter contract with a farmer, compost facility or biogas plant in the south as part of their planning applications.
Our analysis shows that, in the majority of these cases, farms would not have received planning permission without these documents.
Planning records examined by our team show that, in many cases, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) was only satisfied poultry litter would be utilised in a sustainable manner when the applicant provided litter export contracts.
In other cases, Shared Environmental Services (SES) – a council-based body which provides guidance to planners – only found that farms would not have an adverse effect on protected nature sites if the applicant exported litter as outlined in the contracts.
In the majority of council decisions, planning permission was granted on the condition the applicant fully adhere to the litter disposal agreement or contract. In some cases, it is explicitly stated that it would be a breach of planning controls if litter is not exported as described.
In the case of a contract to export animal manure to a farm, DAERA, as a statutory consultee to the Northern Ireland planning regime, stipulates that the planning application must contain evidence that the recipient is a bona fide farmer with the capacity to use the stated volumes of litter without breaching their own farm nutrient limits.
DAERA has to date accepted Teagasc letters as appropriate evidence in this regard. Our analysis shows that official letters are almost always provided by the agri-research body, with letters included with over 80 planning applications since 2015.
The importance of these Teagasc letters in securing planning permission raised alarm with a member of the public in early 2021, with a complaint letter sent to Teagasc in which the authority’s role in sending the letters was questioned.
A concern was raised that Teagasc was, de facto, unwittingly providing consent for landspreading without any environmental assessments. The complaint included a list of 38 planning files in which, what appeared to be Teagasc letters, were provided as part of the planning application.
According to records released to our team, the then-Director of Teagasc Gerry Boyle replied in March 2021 stating Teagasc does not provide any form of consent to farmers. He said the letters only “provide a technical assessment of the capacity of the farm to utilise a particular manure… in full compliance with Irish law”.
In terms of the 38 planning files listed in the complaint, Boyle said Teagasc was examining “the provenance of each of the documents related to Teagasc”.
Records released under Freedom of Information (FOI) reveal that Teagasc’s analysis turned up a completely different issue, and a much bigger one – the suspected falsification of records to support planning applications in the North.
An internal investigation carried out in March 2021 found that 60% of the letters said to be from Teagasc were suspected to be either “falsified” (15) or “amended” (8), with only 40% (15) verified as being “legitimate”.
Interviews were held with farm advisors whose supposed signatures appear on the letters, as well as searches of emails and other records on the advisors’ computer systems.
All staff fully co-operated and Teagasc “found no evidence… staff had any involvement in the supply of falsified documentation,” a report on the investigative findings stated.
The 15 farmers listed in the letters as the supposed litter recipients were also contacted by Teagasc, with the report stating that the communication with the farmers “backs up the concerns raised by advisers in relation to the veracity of the documents in question”.
Described as “a matter of significant concern”, the Teagasc investigative report stated it was “clear” that “there exists a significant level of falsification and alteration without consent of documents in support of [Northern Irish] planning applications”.
According to a letter that Teagasc sent to DAERA in March 2021, An Garda Síochána was notified and the Northern authorities were asked to contact Teagasc “prior to placing reliance on any documentation purportedly submitted by Teagasc”.
Geraint Ellis, chair of Environmental Planning at the School of Planning in Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), said that the issues identified by Teagasc “raises all sorts of potentially very serious issues”.
Ellis, who also sits on the National Economic and Social Council, examined the Teagasc report and letters to the Northern authorities, and told our team that “it’s very clear that there’s been potentially large-scale falsification of documents”.
While he found it “really shocking” to read the documents, Ellis said that “in some ways, it didn’t surprise me”, pointing to decades old “systemic problems with environmental regulation and the planning system in the North”.
Such issues, he said, were highlighted in March by the Public Accounts Committee in Stormont that “produced one of the most damning reports ever seen in terms of planning”.
The report, he said, “comes on the back of many, many other reports over decades highlighting this problem,” including low enforcement action, lack of transparency, skills shortages and resource shortfalls in the planning system.
“It’s really in crisis and I think what you found is a very good example of this,” he said. “If you had a robust system [any potential falsification of documents] would have been caught the first time, let alone God knows how many times.”
In its letter to DEARA, Teagasc provided details of the planning cases with suspected false or altered letters. While details were redacted in released records, our team was provided with the list of 38 cases sent with the original public complaint to Teagasc.
Our analysis shows that planning permission was granted in more than 25 cases, however, there is nothing to suggest any of these cases were on Teagasc’s list of suspected falsified or altered letters.
We asked Teagasc if it has carried out a wider search of planning records to determine if any further applications were submitted with Teagasc letters. It said that it has completed its investigation and that no further cases have been analysed.
Our team then carried out a examination of several hundred planning files and identified over 40 additional applications between 2015 and 2021 where litter contracts with farmers in the Republic and Teagasc letters were included as part of the application files.
We also provided Teagasc with the list of the additional cases we identified – some of which were still active in the planning system at the time of publication – and asked them to examine the files and contact the farmers listed as recipients.
A spokesperson for Teagasc said it has “not pursued” a wider investigation as it has already highlighted the issues identified to Northern Irish authorities and “consider that follow-up across a wider range of files is within the remit of the Planning Authorities holding these files rather than Teagasc”.
“Teagasc have responded to a number of requests from Northern Ireland Planning Authorities for clarification in relation to individual files where they have queried,” it added.
Our team also discovered that suspected falsified documents claiming to be from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were also submitted in a number of separate planning applications for other Northern Irish farms.
When our team raised this with the EPA, it said that the letters contained major inconsistencies, such as not being on official paper or being signed by non-existent staff.
The EPA said it took the issue “very seriously” and carried out an internal investigation, and that any future cases should be raised with the northern planning authorities.
We attempted to contact all farmers whose names appear on the letters as the recipients of litter, providing them with a copy of the letters and asking them to confirm if they had signed them.
Fourteen farmers confirmed the contracts were legitimate, although a few said they have not received any litter. The amount of litter supposed to come to these farms is 2,000 tonnes per year.
Eight farmers – some of whose details were used on multiple applications – told our team they had no knowledge of signing any agreement to take litter. In total, the amount of poultry litter listed in these cases totals 7,000 tonnes claimed to be going to farms every year that is potentially unaccounted for.
While most farmers did not want to speak on record, John* explained to us how he was “annoyed” once he found out someone used his name, especially as it could have a serious impact on his farm subsidies if, on paper, it looked like he was exceeding his nitrogen limits by taking this poultry litter.
“From a farming point of view, keeping things on the right side of the EU is a very important thing and probably the most important part of that is the Nitrates Directive,” he told us. “It’s one that you cannot screw up on.”
If Department of Agriculture inspectors were to see his name on the litter contract and suspect he had failed to declare organic fertiliser spread on his land, John said “they’re going to fine me very substantially and I would probably lose two to three years of the single farm payment”.
“How do I prove I didn’t get it because, you know, the thing says you got it. So to me, it would really open up a terrible hornet’s nest,” he said.
Alongside his concerns over the use of potentially falsified letters, QUB’s Ellis raised concern over what happens with the litter as “there’s clearly waste that’s just not going where it should be”.
“If you start looking at that, I think the whole issue then just broadens out very quickly because if the waste isn’t going to where it should, it must be going somewhere else, and then if it’s going somewhere else, what environmental damage is that doing?”
While our team was unable to trace down where the litter may end up, through information requests to Northern authorities, we have uncovered cases of dumping or storage of poultry litter on farmland without authorisation.
DAERA released information on 11 cases between 2015 and 2017 where unauthorised poultry heaps were discovered during inspections. DAERA refused to provide any details on the farms, locations or individuals involved and only supplied photos.
Therefore, there is nothing to suggest that any of these incidents are linked to the cases identified by Teagasc or cases where farmers told our team that they never signed litter contracts.
An analysis of the photos shows there were several cases where large mounds of litter were discovered. In one case, the litter was dumped close to a stream, carrying the potential to impact the quality of the water course.
In two of the cases, the breach was found to be intentional, with off-farm effects identified in four cases. One farmer was found to have stored litter without authorisation in both 2016 and 2017.
According to QUB’s Ellis, there are three things that can be done immediately by authorities in the North in relation to the use of potentially falsified or altered letters, starting with a criminal investigation examining any potential fraud element.
Then within the planning system, there are two options available, he said, most importantly, examining the individual cases flagged by Teagasc to confirm if planning conditions on litter removal are being met.
“If the waste isn’t going to where it should, there’s a whole range of enforcement action that can be taken, one of which could be that they could halt any farming activity.
“And then I think waiting for the criminal investigation, if it can be proved that the planning documents have been falsified, then essentially [local authorities] are within grounds of revoking planning permissions.”
It appears that action is indeed happening along these lines, according to replies received from Northern authorities to various Freedom of Information requests and press queries over the past few months.
DAERA told us that, at its request, officials from the Department of Finance fraud team carried out an investigation into “potential fraud”, liaising with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The investigation also considered the awarding of grants to sites identified by Teagasc, with DAERA determining there are “no concerns regarding the awarding of grant funding”. Since 2014, DAERA has provided £6m (€7m) in grants towards farm expansions.
DAERA confirmed that the wider investigation is still ongoing and is “focused on the list provided by Teagasc”. We asked DAERA if it would examine all planning files with Teagasc letters – including the additional 42 cases we identified – to determine if any falsified or altered records were used.
It said that “evidence and outcomes derived from this initial investigation” into the limited Teagasc list “may potentially lead to a wider investigation”.
The Department for Infrastructure (DFI) in Northern Ireland was also consulted as part of the investigation and wrote to relevant councils advising them to consider the impact of potential false Teagasc information in respect of planning decisions granted.
It also advised all councils that any future letters claimed to be from Teagasc need to be checked directly with the agency, as well as alerting councils to the possibility of undetermined planning applications relying on “fabricated Teagasc documentation”.
In addition, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) carried out its own investigation and raised “specific concerns” with two councils regarding alleged breaches of planning conditions at four sites. NIEA has now initiated action against the operators of three of the sites in relation to the failure to submit manure export records that may result in a reduction in subsidy payments.
In a statement, the Ulster Farmers’ Union said that it “was not aware” of poultry farms using suspected falsified documents until approached by our team. “This is completely unacceptable and only harms the reputation of Northern Ireland agriculture and must be fully investigated and dealt with by the appropriate authorities,” it added.
We also sent FOI and press requests to local authorities in the North. Two councils confirmed that they have opened a number of enforcement cases, while others said that investigations are ongoing.
One authority told us that it was “aware of the issue”, was “seeking legal advice on the matter” and that it “would be inappropriate to comment any further at this stage”.
In a follow-up press statement, it said that “naturally, the Council takes the matter seriously” and that since this issue arose, it now seeks verification from Teagasc “as to the authenticity of the correspondence provided in its name”.
“We can also confirm that we have opened a number of enforcement cases and are investigating cases where an alleged breach of conditions on permissions for intensive animal housing may have occurred, specifically where litter is being disposed of in locations other than those specified by the permission,” it added.
Another council said they would not release details as “the information requested is included in a number of live enforcement cases with the Council’s Planning Department”.
One council said that the records held were “received as part of an investigation into potential criminality”, while a further council said that release of records “would prejudice the investigatory and/or the possible legal proceedings”.
Another refused to release records “on grounds of [an] ongoing criminal investigation”, arguing that release of the information to “the world at large” would place the ongoing investigation “at a significant disadvantage”.
None of the councils have revoked any planning permissions to date, while one said that it was not aware of any planning approvals being granted on the basis of falsified documents.
Other councils said they are now checking letters with Teagasc directly, whereas before this matter arose, one said that they took the letters at “face value”. Another said that, prior to the issue being raised, “as per our normal procedures the Council was not required to seek to verify the legitimacy of such supporting documents”.
Going forward, one council said they “have reviewed procedures to mitigate against potential for future fraud”. DAERA also told us that, “in response to current concerns”, it has also “introduced an enhanced verification process for Teagasc letters received”.
Environmental groups in the Republic have also raised questions about the control of litter coming from Northern Ireland, with An Taisce’s Ian Lumley telling us the group has “no confidence whatsoever in the management regime for litter, particularly cross-border”.
An Taisce is a statutory consultee in the planning system and Lumley has made dozens of submissions on intensive farm planning cases. While the system isn’t perfect, he said that plans for manure spreading are clearer in planning applications in the Republic.
“But if you have something crossing the border from Northern Ireland into a local authority area [in the Republic], there’s simply nobody monitoring it on this side. So there’s a lacuna [gap].”
An Taisce outlined its concerns to the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue in March 2021 calling for an investigation into a “systemic lack of scrutiny by Irish authorities of importation of animal waste”.
It said the “unapproved and unscreened importation of significant quantities of animal waste into this jurisdiction is in direct violation of international and domestic [environmental] law” and pointed to two planning files for poultry farms in which Teagasc letters were included.
In July 2021, the Minister replied that any operator in Northern Ireland who wishes to dispatch manure to this jurisdiction “must complete the appropriate application form prior to dispatch and state the source of the manure, the destination, the means of transport, the quantity and its use”.
A Department vet reviews the application and, “only on receipt of their approval, is authorization to dispatch granted”, he said. “On the basis of the above, DAFM has knowledge of every load of manure, its origin and farm of destination prior to transportation.”
An internal email chain from late May 2021, however, paints a different picture with staff unable to find details of applications for litter transport in the cases raised by An Taisce.
Writing to the individual assigned with searching for the records, one staff member said: “I think it’s safe to say we did not receive any applications for the dispatches from [Northern Ireland] referred to in the [An Taisce] letter.”
FOI requests to both the Department and Teagasc confirm that no details of Teagasc’s investigation were shared with DAFM by the time that the Minister replied to An Taisce.
We asked the Department if it had carried out any further investigation into the cases in An Taisce’s complaint letter. It said that it was “not in a position to provide information where it relates to specific businesses or named individuals or individual cases”.
Our investigative team also sent the full list of planning cases in which we identified litter contracts and asked DAFM to verify if it received applications for litter shipments in each case.
While the Department said that “information contained in the list… has been examined”, it added that, “in carrying out its regulatory role, the Department does not comment or provide any details in respect of any investigation that may or may not be underway”.
An Taisce has also raised concerns about the regulatory system for the domestic litter trade in the Republic of Ireland, particularly from larger farms of 40,000 birds or more under the Environmental Protection Agency’s licensing system.
The Nitrates Regulations require a minimum of 26 weeks of storage capacity for organic fertiliser on poultry farms, yet our analysis of EPA licence records show that most farms only have the capacity to store eight weeks or less worth of manure.
However, the EPA deemed the majority of applicants exempt as they have agreements for the removal of litter. The EPA’s remit in terms of litter transport, however, does not extend beyond the farm gate as licences only relate to the boundary of the farm.
Under the Nitrates Regulations, the licence holder must submit records of movement of litter to the Department of Agriculture annually, with a copy stored at the farm for possible examination during inspections by the EPA, DAFM or local authorities.
Internal records of a meeting between DAFM and the EPA in May 2021 show that there are gaps in the system, however, with “issues with tracking of organic fertiliser and its impacts on water quality” discussed at the meeting.
“It was felt there are holes in the data available,” the minutes state, with the EPA reinforcing to the Department that its “remit does not extend beyond the site boundary of installations”.
Environmental consultant Jack O’Sullivan, who has experience dealing with farm licence cases, told our team that, while on paper, there is a control system in place for the export of manures, he is very concerned about the real world implementation of it.
“The EPA will consider all of the activities within the red line boundary of the site but anything outside that boundary is a matter for the farmers themselves to take care of the organic fertiliser,” he said.
“Once those lorry loads of poultry litter go outside the gate, there’s no control. The Department of Agriculture should exercise some control [but] they really don’t,” he said, while councils don’t have the manpower or resources to do so either.
O’Sullivan’s concerns are also reflected by local authorities themselves, according to records released from Monaghan County Council that oversees the largest concentration of farms in the country.
A detailed 2021 report on the poultry industry, commissioned by the council, estimates that 250,000 tonnes of litter is produced annually, with concerns raised over monitoring, regulation and enforcement with respect to the control of litter landspreading.
The report points to a “lack of a robust cross-agency data and information sharing system”, including the continued use of paper forms limiting local authorities ability to monitor manure movement and usage.
Records released to our team reveal these concerns were raised at a meeting between the Council’s environmental team and Fehily Timoney – the consultancy that produced the report. The council outlined the challenge of “how to manage controls of where manure goes”.
A May 2021 email from Kieran Duffy, the environmental team’s executive engineer, provides clarity on internal concerns over control of where litter from farms ends up.
Providing comments on a draft of the report, he took issue with a line that said there were “strict regulations” to mitigate impacts from landspreading. Writing in bold red, he commented that “the ‘strict regulations’ referred to above are not working adequately”.
“In reality,” he said, “there are significant deficiencies nationally in respect of the control systems in place in relation to the management and tracking of organic fertiliser from source to end user”.
The Council’s concerns date back to at least July 2019 in a Monaghan County Council report to the Local Authority Waters Programme (LAWPRO) – an agency examining water quality issues in each county.
The report – released to our team – states that conditions at the planning stage to ensure litter is exported to tillage land or composting facilities “are currently not checked nor is there an enforcement inspection regime in place due to lack of resources”.
We asked authorities in Monaghan and Cavan for inspection rates of poultry farms between 2017 and 2021. Cavan carried out just two inspections, while Monaghan carried out 95 inspections between 2016 and 2019, but only inspected five farms since 2019.
Cavan said its inspection rate is linked to complaints received. Monaghan said that a non-statutory inspection program ran from 2016 to 2019, “hence the reason for the reduction in specific poultry farm inspections”.
When asked if its current inspection rate is enough to ensure planning conditions on litter exports are met, the council said that it did not have other comments to make on this matter.
LAWPRO also released a 2019 submission from Cavan and Monaghan representatives in which serious concerns were outlined about “lack of information and transparency on manure movements”.
The report raised concern about responsibility put on councils for enforcement and tracking litter once it leaves EPA-licensed farms. “This is a large workload given the high number of licensed premises we have,” the report states.
The report also found litter export forms were “not completed by a large portion of poultry farmers,” with half of 110 farms surveyed in 2017 and 2018 not returning forms to DAFM.
LAWPRO has raised its own concerns with DAFM and the EPA for several years about the regulatory system for the movement and spreading of poultry litter.
In December 2019, it produced a report on the regulatory controls for large poultry units. It outlined that, in terms of litter shipments, “receiving counties receive no advance information on incoming manures, landbank destination or landbank selection criteria”.
In terms of the landspreading itself, the document states that “information is not readily available for a detailed investigation” if a pollution complaint arises and that there is no mechanism in place to ensure society that complaints can be dealt with satisfactorily.
Concerns were raised with the EPA in February 2020, according to a LAWPRO memo released to us, with the issues also “raised previously with both [the] EPA and DAFM with no resolution that satisfies [local authorities] concerns”.
DAFM told us it engages with LAWPRO and other stakeholders on an ongoing basis, and introduced an on-line system to register litter movements in 2021. The EPA said it received the LAWPRO report, and that it “takes landspreading and transporting into consideration” as part of the licensing process.
While investigations are ongoing in the North, there are robust agri-expansion policies in place on both sides of the border to continue the expansion of the industry, which will mean more poultry sheds, more birds and more litter produced.
According to environmental scientist Jack O’Sullivan, if the industry is to expand even further, there is a clear need for greater cross-border coordination to ensure a robust poultry litter system with control of where the litter is going and when it is being spread.
“There’s clearly a problem of who should be doing what, and that, in turn, demands monitoring because without knowing what the problem is, how can we then put the correct and appropriate control systems in place?”
*Name changed to protect identity
Read more on this today in The Detail and The Guardian
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Reporter: Niall Sargent of Noteworthy
Developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu as part of a cross-border project with Rory Winters, Luke Butterly and Tommy Greene for The Detail and Ella McSweeney for The Guardian.
This was originally published by Noteworthy, the investigative unit of The Journal, now known as The Journal Investigates.
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Ah lads,does every church related story on this site have to include snide comments? the items were stolen and now they’re back where they belong. Lets leave it at that!
Yep. We can rest easier in our beds tonight…
Apart from the fact to some ( not many I agree) the church is a terrorist organisation.
When the Church has done something wrong,I’ll definitely criticize them. But in fairness,the objects were stolen from them and if the thieves are like the ones robbing old priests and parishioners in my area over the recent few months, they couldn’t give a damn about religion or what the Catholic Church has done to anyone in the past,out for themselves!
Well said Ann-Marie. They’re always very bold these lot. :-)
Oh they’re unbelievable, Réada! ;)
having had cancer i found that the power of prayer did work for me , believe me when you are at your lowest and you have someone to talk to being it here on earth or spiritually belief is a wonderful thing so please dont knock it till you have tried it.
Glad your doing better now Franco wish you the best.
Best of luck Franco!
oh dear oh dear did nine people just thumb down Francos very uplifting comment, what sort of deranged people are out there. my apologies on their behalf Franco. Best of luck
I wish you the best Franco but surely we should put our belief in science which is actually endeavouring every minute of the day to find a cure for these awful diseases..?
thanks tim you are right science during the day and prayer at night works wonders ..
While I don’t believe in religion and lash at the Roman Church at any opportunity where I think they deserve it I also think peoples beliefs should be respected and good news is scarce and welcome. I’m delighted that these historic items have been returned and hope your recovery franco will have the same happy outcome.
Tried it and all it did was harm
I hear you franco and wish you well.
All the best to you Franco…
Randy, you’re a star. Sittin’ there with a dangerous weapon and “will be killed” on the wall behind you. Class…
Watch the straw boater Michael! Looks a target from here!!!
Franco. Nothing wrong with prayer, whomever you pray to. The stillness won’t ever do harm. Best of luck.
The return of these relics “demonstrates once again the power of prayer”… Oh, so that’s what God was busy doing while those children were dying of AIDS in Africa.
It was the cops not the power of prayer. Also they should be sold and the money given to the poor. Think Jesus said give all your money to the poor. The Vatican doesn’t follow that teaching!!!
great news.
the nine thumbs down most be the peoples who stole the relic’s!!!!!!
I do love the 23 negative comments for Great News it does fuck up all those marketing people
The power of prayer . . . . And the good work of the gardai ! ! ! ! He forgot about them – they didn’t just stumble upon them after all the prayers ! !
my thoughts exactly Dylan; tho in fairness i was giving 100% of the credit to the Garda ;-)
I heard the tooth fairy also helped god get the gear back.
to add to the rest of the wealth the church has collected down through the ages just look underneath the Vatican
That’s good news and thanks to the work of the Gardai who got them back to the Abbey . Well done !
Whaaaaaaaaaaat?????? Do you mean we should start selling everything we have in the National Museum of Ireland and auction all of the gifts that have been provided by visiting Heads of State.
Why not raid all homes in the post Christmas period and confiscate anything that Santa gave so that it can be sold to help our National debt position.
Let’s grow up first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think that’s a great idea, sell all on Ireland’s art get say 1bn give 10m to living Irish artists to restock then use remaining 990m for hospitals and other vital needs. A painting has never helped a starving child
Hold on Jay! You reckon that if all the art in the museums and the Vatican, for that matter ,were sold the money would reach the mouths of starving children??
Mark, seeing as you wish to sell state assets to pay the bank debt I wonder why you don’t want to sell everything from the national Museum too. That will be next. They won’t stop until the whole island is sold off. Btw I wouldn’t sell them either. :)
I come from Holycross. I was raised there. To be honest I’m not at all religious but I do take pride in my home place. When those guys stole the relics they weren’t just stealing some old artefacts, they were stealing our name. The entire village and community is named Holycross after the relic. I actually “whooped” when I heard the news.
Most of us would allow the inaccurate and ignorant comments of Lennart just slide by but I’m not in that kind of mood tonight.
The Vatican State receives gifts from other States in exactly the same fashion as those we exchanged a short time with Her Majesty the Queen of England upon her State visit to Ireland.
Lennart suggests that this comprises wealth and the inference of mis misguided comment is that somehow all should be sold to the highest bidder.
Even better we could smelt all Down to base metals and precious stones to avoid anyone accusing us of behaving badly according to his pathetic standards.
abbey days :-)
How do we these are relics of the true cross ?
How dare you question authority!!! ;-) the True cross must have been 50ft tall and 25ft wide, going by the amount of true cross chips doing the rounds!!!
Much like the foundation of all major religions I imagine it’s based on nothing more than anecdotal ‘evidence’
PS……….The Vatican museum is at ground level and not beneath the Vatican……….!
Yes but it’s vast !
Once you walk through it you will never give another penny to “Peters Pence”.
They could raise billions selling just some of the collection once the recession is over.
There’s also the other part of the museums, the backstage bit showing all the props, old bibles and such, not so much art, more like gore and fetishism -teeth and fingers and even a bust of one of the saints made of gold formed around his actual skull. It’s weird how much the catholic version of god apparently loves gold and jewels though, surprising he didn’t make more of it if he’s such a fan
I think it is right that the Vatican retains and displays the artifacts of it’s history as it is right and proper that similar artifacts which form part of the rich history of this country also be retained and displayed in the abbeys and churches where they rightly belong.
Like it or not most works of art, music, architecture, sculpture etc. were commissioned and inspired by the belief in and the expression of the exuberance of religion. If we can only look upon religious practice and belief with the view that it should be broken down and it’s artifacts dispersed and devoured by maw of the commercial and economic greed so that the treasures of this country and others decorate the mantelpiece of some stockbroker or bond trader, oligarch or despot then we loose.
“They could raise billions selling just some of the collection once the recession is over.”
You’re forgetting about the big fat Swiss bank accounts and all the land they own. They preach about not being materialistic and then you see the Pope, Bishops, Cardinals all with more bling than 50 Cent. ??
Followers just accept this. “Ah sure, t’is fine, leave them alone.” ??
Will the holy stone of clontibret be returned?
If true prayer made god scratch his chin and make the thieves return the relic why did he make them steal it in the first place or was that the work of Satan taking advantage of god sleeping on the job?
You’ve got to try to get over this Cyril. You really do. I knew I’d see a comment from you here. :D
Reada when the religious decide to leave their wishful thinking out of our schools, politics and courts, when our media allows a sceptical analysis of religion itself then I will consider it time to call it a day. Unfortunately that will be an equally predictible outcome and as long as it is I aint going anywhere.
I was only teasing Cyril. It was late. Hadn’t hit the bottle or anything but maybe “la Luna” was having an effect. :-)
I suggest an experiment. Leave the valuables on a table in the middle of the church with the doors open. We all pray, really hard, that no-one comes and takes them. Let’s see the power of prayer in action. On yer knees, everybody!!
We’re already on our knees. Do you want us to prostrate ourselves?
yes please, Reada! Lots of prostrating, prostrating with prayer, face first onto the cold floor with a prayer on yer lips and a song of praise in yer heart! But…mostly prostrating!!!
Sorry Dave. I’ve stood up. Not on my knees so no chance! :-)
Have to say that I am always amazed at the incredible ignorance shown by many commentators when it comes to anything to do with religion. So many commentators know absolutely nothing whatsoever about what the Church teaches, about its history and about what it does in the world today. An example are the predictable comments about selling Church property to feed the poor (the Church is already one of the biggest charitable institutions in the world) or about the size of the cross given all of the relics (the relics are normally tiny fragments and there actually aren’t that many). It seems that a lot of people see fit to dismiss the Church (and worse, to dismiss ordinary believers) without ever having engaged with what the Church teaches at any serious level at all. (“Catholic” schooling in Ireland is a complete joke and does not constitute engagement with Catholicism by the way).
Is there scope for criticising aspects of the Church today? Yes, of course there are. And you will find no better critics of the clergy and bishops than Catholics who actually know what the Church actually teaches. But that criticism is nuanced and subtle and informed, unlike so much that we find online and in the media in general.
Of course, the Church in this country deserves a lot of the blame because of its lack of intellectual culture and general incompetence, especially when it comes to communication. It’s hard to blame people for ignorance when most of the clergy in this country has never done anything to correct that ignorance.
“Pope Benedict XVI condemned unbridled “pagan” passion for power, possessions and money as a modern-day plague Saturday as he led more than a quarter of a million Catholics in an outdoor Mass in Paris.”
But…this is from the Mr Fancy Pants in silk clothes with gold stitching who lives
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/09/15/vatican.jpg
Give me a good reason why I should not even question this.
The church really has aMASSsed their massive portfolio of property, gold bullion, priceless art and lots and lots of cash, through helping the poor. Is there an irony here?
My friend, I never said to shouldn’t question things. Catholics are not against questioning matters despite myths to the contrary. But questioning also implies being open to answers…
The Pope personally has no money. He lives in relatively humble apartments. In fact, when Pope John Paul II died, the entire apartment he lived in had to be gutted and refitted before the present pope moved in. The pipes leaked, only one ring on his cooker worked…It is well known that his underwear was repatched and repaired again and again to the point of falling apart. It is possible to live amidst splendour and still live with personal poverty and detachment.
The simple fact is that the Church is one of the most significant charitable organisations in the world (if not in fact the biggest). it is also possible to point to many many individual Catholics who have given up everything to serve the poor. If we are prepared to condemn the Church on the basis of what we perceive to be faults then we should also be prepared to praise it when we see manifestly good things. Unfortunately many people are either unaware of the good things or do not wish to see them.
The Church, strictly speaking, does not need its art and buildings. But the Church believes in beauty (you wouldn’t think it based on the church in Ireland though…). This beauty inspires us, and this inspiration is a good thing for the human spirit. If it was all sold off, it would feed poor for a while (who are already being fed by the Church by the way) and then what? Great works of art and beauty would be hoarded by private collectors and investors and humanity would be worse off.
By the way, there is a hostel for the homeless in the Vatican. Most people do not know this.
Also, the Vatican finances were depleted on various occasions in recent history because of the charity of the popes to the poor of Rome during various crises, specifically during WWII.
Wow!
I think we’ve really lost it…….can I get off the bus please………
piece of the cross mother of f@#$ do people really exist who believe that
Yawn.. Big diddy.
Sell the vulgar crap and compensate the raped, buggered and abused… End of.
@ almar. ……. Too little too late, read your history , 1 homeless shelter and giving less than 0.1 % of your annual income to charity will never make up for the horrors inflicted on ordinary Europeans over the last couple of thousand years, all that land accumulated from dying desperate folk hoping for entrance to heaven, the children of Ireland of which my grandmother was one horrifically abused her 2 sisters 1 in the mental asylum for the rest of her life because she kept showing any visitors that came to the convent the unmarked grave where the nuns put the body of her sister after they killed her, the teachings of the church are a complete and utter fallacy . The church is at the bottom of the dirt. I don’t care if the pope had holy knickers or not.
@ponythegringo – I am very sorry for your family’s sufferings. It is beyond doubt that there have been many corrupt people in the Church. They have more guilt than those outside the Church because they should have known better. The crimes of the clergy are indeed much worse than the crimes of others precisely because of the position that they hold.
That said, there are many inaccuracies in your post. One example is in relation to the homeless shelter. Yes. there is one in the Vatican (which is a very small piece of land).. But there are tens of thousands of them around the world that have been founded because of Christian teaching. And let us be clear about what that teaching is – it is Love. Unfortunately, many people, including many in the Church, do not follow that teaching. But there are still those who do, and they do a lot of good in the world.
Ireland was never really a Catholic country, at least not within the last few hundred years. Yes, it was a clerical country and a Jansenistic country, but they are aberrations of Catholicism. One of the downsides of this is that we tend to equate the behaviour of priests with the teachings of the Church. This is wrong because many priests behave in ways that are contrary to the teachings of the Church. But even though there are many who ignore them, those teachings about love remain, and they are still an inspiration to many.
From the Bible.
Blessed is the one who grabs your little children and smashes them against a rock.
- God
Psalm 137:9
If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.
- God
Deuteronomy 22:28
However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.
- God
Leviticus 25
Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children.
- God
Ezekiel 9:5
When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.
- God
Exodus 21:7
There are more lovely quotes.
” many inaccuracies ” ? You mean 1 about the shelter? And let us be clear the teachings of the church are not about love , they are about fooling gullible people into parting with their money . Pre-Christian teachings were about love of everything on this planet . Christian teachings are all to do with the human ego and how believing in a disgustingly Fallic fairytale will make humans feel better about themselves while they rape the planet in pursuit of coin.
@ponythegringo: Yes, the Church is about love. I am sorry if you have never met anybody who has explained this to you before. The Church in Ireland is so decrepit and in need of reform that it is unsurprising that this message has never been received.
As for pre-Christian teachings and their love for everything? Well, I’m afraid you need to go back to your history books. What about the cruelty of the Romans? The cannibalism of numerous pagan tribes and civilisations? How well did the Aztecs love all of creation? The reality is that the civilisation that we take for granted – the basic human decency and regard for others – rests largely on Christian love. A review of the history of the early Christian period makes it clear that it was the love and the decency of the early Christians that helped them to grow in number so rapidly. And remember, they grew in number rapidly despite persecutions; despite the fact that being a Christian could mean death at the hands of Roman soldiers or death in the mouth of a lion! There was surely something compelling that caused an impoverished sect with no political or financial power to grow exponentially despite the huge risk of death. It is clear that Christians loved others and treated people better than the prevailing ethos of the pagan world. That is what Christianity is about.
Have there been many priests, bishops and even popes who have pursued the coin? Sure! There were many and there probably will be many in the future. But they are the minority. On the other hand there were (and still are!) many great Catholics who literally laid their lives down to serve others, and did so without ever calling attention to themselves. That is the message of Christianity when lived properly, not in the half hearted way in has generally been lived in this country.
Specifically, in terms of raping the planet in pursuit of money, well despite your proclamation to the contrary, there is nothing in Christian teaching that would make such people feel good about themselves.
When you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense to abandon the goodness of Jesus because of badness of Judas…
that Jesus guy must have been huge. All the bits of his cross put together would get you to the moon.
You are obviously a Jehovah’s witness or a Mormon
You will never convince me of your pro Christian nonsense . Now have the last word if you must……
I commend your superior theological intellect. Happy now?
Would these be considered class relics so?
I think we should all say a prayer.. Ok Journal folks… To make the bailout go away.
have your say