A PIG FARM was found to have more than 20 dead animals piled into an open skip during an inspection by the environmental regulator, which described the discovery as an “open carcass dump”.

The inspection found that the farm was not removing pig carcasses every week as required under the terms of its licence. These bodies are typically brought for disposal and incinerated off site.

One animal was also pictured motionless in a walkway where it had been lying for an indeterminate amount of time.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave the farm priority following the routine inspection, carrying out a number of follow up visits.

Concerns about animal disease are high in the sector, particularly around the storage and disposal of dead pigs, with one government document classing it as a “major source of infectious material” for farms.

When contacted, the EPA said the farm has “taken remedial actions to address the issues that were highlighted” by the agency.

“The Agency will revisit the facility in 2025. Any additional enforcement action taken will be in line with the EPA’s compliance and enforcement policy,” a spokesperson said.

The EPA said it advised the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine of its site visit findings. The department declined to comment when contacted by The Journal, saying it does not provide responses on individual cases.

Regulator’s report

In the report by the watchdog it ordered Kiernan’s pig farm in Ballinalee, Co Longford to secure the bodies in a covered container.

It said it discovered the “open carcass dump” at the rear of the pig housing. Open sewerage was also found during the inspection last year.

The report and its photos have been released through an Access to Environmental Information request, a type of freedom of information query covered by law for environmental issues.

The registered piggery has space for 2,000 pigs for rearing from birth to slaughter, according to the terms of its licence. According to media reports it was reportedly a base of operations that housed 20% of Ireland’s pig herd – more than 300,000 of the animals – at its height.

In its report, the EPA noted that rather than carcasses being removed from the site “at least weekly”, they were instead being removed on a fortnightly basis from March through to May. Following a removal on 3 May last year, the next removal took place on 7 June.

According to the farm’s licence, it was not in compliance as it was not removing carcasses every week as required from April to September.

That license states that “animal tissue or carcasses stored on-site pending disposal shall be placed in covered, leak proof containers and shall at a minimum be removed weekly” for disposal. It may may be reduced to fortnightly removal but this is only “during October to March” according to the license.

In the farm’s response, the EPA was told that the skip is now collected every week.

It also said that the skip containing the animal carcasses was covered after the inspection and that flagged areas of the farm were “clear of all waste”.

The farm also said that it responded to another incident – where a stagnant water body on the farm had become contaminated and was entering permeable ground – by covering the area.

The farm’s owner Padraig Kiernan, aged in his mid 60s, runs another licenced farm of significant size and which is also regulated by the EPA.

The Department of Agriculture was asked how often its officials have been present on the site and whether it had carried out any inspections.

EPA inspections

The pile of carcasses among a series of incidents highlighted by the EPA in its monitoring of the farm over recent months.

On one visit last August, the watchdog found “inadequate waste handling and management” at the site, which it suggested was due to an “inability/lack of motivation to comply with the appropriate” waste management practices and legislation.

“Some of the waste appears to have been stored for a period exceeding 6 months,” the EPA said.

During an inspection the month before that, the EPA found that one of the farm buildings had “collapsed” on the site.

A photo of the collapsed roof during the inspection last summer. It has since been secured and the pigs moved elsewhere. EPA EPA

It also warned of “poor waste management” as well as the presence of damaged asbestos sheeting which the agency considered to be an “incident with the potential for environmental contamination” to surface water, groundwater and air.

The piggery had “failed to report” this incident, which it said was not in compliance with a condition of its licence.

Farm’s response

In its response to the EPA, the farm sought to reassure the watchdog that it had tidied and cleared the areas highlighted in the inspections.

The farm told the EPA that concerns around slurry – which can significantly pollute water – had been dealt with by moving pigs away from the stagnant water bodies.

A skip used for animal carcasses had been covered and secured, with the skip “collected every week” since the EPA inspection.

The farm had also decommissioned tanks that were no longer operating correctly, leaking their contents.

Photos of the above measures were provided by Kiernan to the EPA according to the agency’s online database on the licenced farm.

Annual reports produced by the EPA have previously classed the environmental performance of the pig farm as “excellent”, such as in its most recent report in 2022.

Kiernan family

The findings against the Ballinalee piggery are a marked change for a business that previously was a key part of a sprawling empire of pig farms across the country owned by the Kiernan family.

However, court records indicate disputes within the family which saw the farms splinter among successors to the late patriarch Patrick ‘Buddy’ Kiernan.

Buddy Kiernan – a former Fine Gael councillor and chairman of Cavan County Council, who headed up the party’s treasurers committee – died in 2010.

Company filings show his son Padraig Kiernan registered the Ballinalee farm under his own name four months later. He runs several other farms in Leinster and the Midlands.

A High Court judgment from 2023 saw a ruling against Padraig Kiernan for €3.4m, taken by a major animal feed company founded by his father and now run by his brother. 

The ruling noted that Padraig Kiernan was “at one time the vice chairman” of Kiernan Milling, but was “no longer involved” with the company in any way.